j'tllm^^i'iliTi,?!';  CALIFORNIA.  SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822  02243  6828 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822  02243  6828 


Social  Sciences  &  Humanities  Library 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 
Please  Note:  This  item  is  subject  to  recall. 

Date  Due 

"y^/y  sa/?^ 

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3 


J" 


THE    COOLIE 


f  b  ^iglrls  an>  Mtonqt 


By  the  author  OF  "GINX'S  BABY" 


AUTHOR'S  EDITION 


GEORGE  ROUTLEDGE  AND  SONS 

NEW  YORK:    416,  BROOME  STREET 
1871 


Thifi  edition  is  the  only  one  published  in  America  with  the 

consent  of  the  author,  and  from  the  sale  of 

which  he  derives  any  benefit. 


THE  NEW  rOUK  PRINTING  COMPANT, 

205,  207,  209,  211,  and  213  RoJit  Twelfth  Street. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 


THIS  edition  of  "  The  Coolie "  has  been  ex- 
pressly prepared  for  American  readers,  and 
has  been  corrected  by  the  author's  own  hands.  The 
subject  of  it  is  only  one  branch  of  a  wide  and 
deeply  interesting  question — one  likely  to  increase 
in  interest  with  the  expanding  energies  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  through  British  and  American 
dominions.  Whether  in  the  future  of  the  Southern 
States,  in  turning  an  eye  to  the  labour-fields  of  the 
East,  some  such  system  as  is  described  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages  may  come  to  be  adopted,  I  know 
not;  yet  I  cannot  but  feel  that  many  of  the  facts 
here  related,  many  of  the  principles  here  discussed, 
and  not  a  little  of  the  general  policy  here  advocated, 
will  prove  of  interest,  if  not  of  use,  to  philanthropists 
and  politicians  in  America.  It  is  well  that  Americans 
and  Englishmen  should  feel  a  common  interest  in  all 
great  questions  of  social  polity  or  of  philanthropic 


VI  PREFACE. 

principle.  We  can  no  more  disregard  each  other's 
movements,  each  other's  successes,  or  each  other's 
blunders,  than  we  can  the  motions  of  the  earth  or  the 
laws  of  gravitation.  Therefore  it  is  that  I  send  out 
this  little  book  to  the  readers  of  America. 

As  all  readers  may  not  care  to  dip  too  deeply  into 
the  subject,  I  have  restricted  the  narrative  of  my 
journey,  and  such  picturesque  facts  and  incidents  as 
came  under  my  own  personal  observation,  to  the  First 
Part,  which  has  been  recast,  with  considerable  and 
important  additions,  from  a  series  of  papers  published 
in  Good  Words.  In  the  Second  Part — from  Chapter 
XV. — I  discuss  the  system  and  the  local  legislation. 
This  is  entirely  new.  I  may  add  that  long  as  is 
the  Appendix,  it  will  be  found  to  repay  a  careful 
perusal. 

Temple,  London, 
June  1st,  1871. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAOX 

I.  INTRODUCTORY       .....•••.  I 

II.  THE  TERMINI — AND  BETWEEN         ••••..  I3 

III.   GEORGETOWN,  DEMERARA 23 

rV.   THE  ESTATES— WINDSOR  FOREST 32 

V.   SCHOON  ORD 45 

VI.   GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  AND  GOVERNING  CLASSES  .           .  58 

VII.   ESTATES,  MANAGEMENT,  STAFF,  AND  EXPENSES  ...  73 

VIII.   IMMIGRATION  ORGANISATION  IN  INDIA  AND  BRITISH  GUIANA  83 

IX.   COOLIE  STRIKES  AND  POINTS  OF  LAW I03 

X.   THE  CHINESE  SETTLEMENT II4 

XI.   A  CATTLE  FARM I25 

XII.   THE  COMMISSION  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  CONCOMITANTS      .          .  I29 

XIII.    COOLIE  PETITIONS ,           .  I42 

XIV.  THE  PENAL  SETTLEMENT I47 

PART  II. 

XV.  THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER  AND  THE  INDIAN   ORGANISATION  1 53 
XVI.   THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE  AND  ITS  CHIEF     .           .           .           .  169 

XVII.   INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,   RE-INDENTURES,   AND   IMPRISON- 
MENTS            188 

XVIII.   WOMEN  AND  MARRIAGES 203 

XIX.   IMMIGRATION  LAWS  AFFECTING  THE  COOLIE         .  .  .214 

XX.   THE  coolie's  REMEDIES  AGAINST  HIS  EMPLOYER.            .           .  229 

XXI.   WAGES 239 

XXII.   AIDS  AND  REMEDIES  ON  THE  COOLIES'  BEHALF      .           .           .  254 

XXIII.   MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  DOCTORS,  AND  HOSPITALS   .           .           .  275 

XXIV.   MORAL  AND  MATERIAL  WELFARE,  AND  CONCLUSION    .           .  297 

APPENDIX      ...• 305 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

COLOUR  white  and  colour  brown,  Brahmin  and 
Pariah,  domineering  Anglo-Saxon  and  supple 
Asian,  master  and  servant,  lord  and  serf,  Government 
and  labourers.  Planters  and  Coolies,  these  are  the 
parties  the  controversy  about  whose  relations  and 
interests,  mutual  or  antagonistic,  is  the  subject  of 
this  book,  as  it  was  the  object  of  my  journey  to 
British  Guiana.  Often  has  the  world  seen  a  similar 
controversy,  the  scene  shifting  with  the  shifting 
fortunes  of  races. 

Of  no  small  gravity  are  the  issues  to  the  parties 
concerned.  To  the  planters,  .who  are  staking  fortunes 
upon  fresh  annual  swarmings  from  the  great  Indian 
or  Chinese  hives — ^nay,  to  you  also,  all  sugar-con- 
suming bipeds — the  question  whether  one  hundred 
thousand  hogsheads,  more  or  less,  shall  be  yearly 
extracted  from  the  rich  mud-banks  that  lie  between 
the  Essequibo,  Demerara,  and  Corentyn  rivers  is  some- 
what personal  and  serious  ;  is  it  not  r  It  needs,  there- 
fore, only  to  be  said  that  if  Coolie  proved  impracti- 
cable in  the  controversy,  the  whole  of  that  vast  industry 
would  be  endangered,  with  everything  depending  on 
it  of  capital  and  energy  and  commercial  progress. 

On  the  other  hand,  deeply  interesting  is  this  ques- 
tion to  the  Coolie  himself  and  to  the  philanthropist.  A 

B 


3  THE  COOLIE. 

hundred  thousand  hogsheads  of  sugar  per  annum  in 
the  world,  more  or  less,  is  a  tittle  compared  with  the 
question — Whether  the  toilers  who  produce  it  are 
wronged  and  unhappy  ?  Some  fifty  thousand  immi- 
grants, carried  by  long  voyages  from  their  own  land 
and  family  and  race  associations,  are — of  their  own 
free  will  let  it  be  remembered — bound  for  a  certain 
number  of  years  to  fetch  and  carry,  to  work  and  delve, 
for  any  master  assigned  to  them  by  a  Demerara 
executive ;  bound  under  a  wonderfully  complicated 
system,  with  legal  balances  and  checks,  devised,  some 
say,  to  protect  them,  others  say  to  wrap  them  in 
inextricable  bonds.  How  these  people  endure  the 
change  of  life,  how  they  are  treated,  their  well-being 
or  misery,  and  that  of  their  children,  have  been  the 
subjects  of  an  elaborate  inquiry  ordered  by  her 
Majesty's  Government.  This  inquiry,  I  venture  to 
say,  demands  the  fairest,  keenest,  strictest,  most 
instant  attention  of  that  Great  Mogul  the  British 
public. 

Some  time  since,  one,  assuming  to  himself  the  office 
of  Coolies'  advocate,  represented  to  the  Colonial 
Secretary  their  state  to  be  little  other  than  that  from 
which  not  many  years  ago  the  tillers  of  the  same  soil 
were  redeemed  by  our  generous  fathers.  Seduced 
from  India  or  China  by  false  promises  (so  he  seems 
to  have  av^erred) — not  duly  notified  of  the  legislation 
which  would  affect  their  relations  when  they  reached 
the  field  of  labour — assigncvd  without  due  caution  on 
the  part  of  the  executive  to  the  power  of  uncon- 
scientious masters — wronged  by  the  law  and  against 
law — daily  injured,  and  unable  to  obtain  redress, 
because  of  combinations  between  unjust  magistrates, 
hireling  doctors,  and  manoeuvring  planters — dying 
unrecked  and  unreckoned  (I  have  tried  faithfully  thus 
to  sum  up  this  man's  charges) — such  a  fifty  thousand 
British  subjects,  anywhere  existing,  would  heat  the 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

sympathies  of  English  hearts  to  boiling-point,  and 
woe  worth  the  Governor  and  Council,  Court  of  Policy 
or  impolicy,  Combined  Court  or  Electors'  College, 
judges,  magistrates,  doctors,  planters,  managers,  over- 
seers, .  and  '*  drivers,"  who  should  be  accomplices  in 
such  a  state  of  things !  Most  certainly  this  mud-bank 
question  is  a  heavy  matter.  One  hundred  thousand 
hogsheads  of  sugar  versus  fifty  thousand  human  souls  ; 
your  money  or  their  life. 

It  will  be  seen  that  I  was  selected  by  two  great 
philanthropic  societies  to  represent  the  Coolies  in 
this  inquiry.  I  accepted  and  held  their  retainer  as  a 
counsel,  not  as  a  partisan.  I  not  only  am  not  but 
never  was  a  member  of  either  of  the  associations. 
No  one  can  accuse  me  of  prejudice  either  way  when 
I  went  to  Demerara.  On  the  contrary,  I  determined 
to  form  an  unbiassed  judgment,  and  I  claim  for  my 
opinions  the  weight  due  to  impartiality. 

Jiesides  my  own  experiences  and  the  evidence 
adduced  at  the  inquiry,  I  now  have  the  Report  of  the 
Commissioners  to  fall  back  upon  as  at  once  a  source 
of  information  and  confirmation.  It  is  not  possible 
to  exaggerate  the  value  of  this  Report  as  a  mastt  riy 
and,  long  as  it  is,  a  concise  review  of  the  whole  Coolie 
system.  It  must  have  no  small  influence  upon  the 
future  policy  of  the  Colonial  Office,  upon  the  machinery 
adopted  in  India  and  in  various  Coolie-worked 
colonies  of  the  empire,  upon  the  fortunes  of  peoples 
whose  future  is  one  of  the  gravest  problems  of 
humanity.  I  cannot  wonder  that  there  are  philan- 
thropists in  England  who  watch,  with  a  jealousy 
made  alert  by  former  evils,  the  transportation  over 
immense  distances  of  ignorant  and  simple  people  to 
places  where  they  are  subjected  to  the  uncontrolled 
power  of  a  local  plutocracy — a  planting  community 
whose  interest  it  naturally  is  to  obtain  for  the  cost  of 
their  importation  the  maximum  of  profit.      It   is  a 


4  THE  COOLIE. 

noble  zeal  which  prompts  the  distant  stranger  to  look 
after  the  man  whose  brotherhood  is  the  only  claim  to 
his  regard.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  needful  not  to 
be  generous  only  to  the  Coolie,  but  to  be  just  to  his 
masters  ;  and  it  is  in  the  earnest  desire  to  have  this 
recognised,  to  strike  an  even  balance  between  con- 
Jlicting  opinions,  that  I  write  this  book.  If  I  may 
find  it  difficult — as  who  would  not  ?■ — clearly  to  separate 
myself  from  the  powerful  influences  of  a  labour  carried 
on  for  some  busy  months  in  one  behalf,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  may  appeal  confidently  to  those  planter  friends, 
whose  kind  and  manly  hospitality  made  my  work 
endurable,  to  acquit  me  at  all  times  of  an  intentional 
injustice. 

Demerara,  of  which  Georgetown  is  the  capital,  is  a 
division  or  county  of  British  Guiana,  a  colony  lying 
between  Surinam  or  Dutch  Guiana,  and  Venezuela, 
on  the  north-west  shoulder  of  South  America.  British 
Guiana  is  divided  into  three  counties,  named  respect- 
ively after  the  great  rivers  which  bound  or  trans- 
pierce them — Berbice,  Demerara,  and  Essequibo. 

Next  let  me  state  the  dimensions  of  the  colony. 
From  the  Corentyn  river,  separating  it  from  Surinam, 
to  the  Barima  river,  which  glides  between  it  and 
Venezuela,  extends  a  coast-line  of  two  hundred  and 
eighty  miles,  from  which  line,  in  towards  the  Brazils, 
it  stretches  three  and  sometimes  four  hundred  miles 
or  more  in  breadth.  It  lies  between  latitude  8°  N. 
and  3°  30'  S. 

Seven  da3's  before  I  set  out  for  Demerara,  I  had  as 
much  idea  of  visiting  the  moon ;  but  when  the  Abori- 
gines Protection  Society  and  the  Anti-Slavery  Society 
offered  me,  as  a  barrister,  a  retainer  in  an  investigation 
concerning  for  right  or  wrong  near  half  a  hundred 
thousand  souls,  I  could  not  hesitate  about  my  duty  or 
be  tardy  in  my  movements.  So  many  Coolies  and 
Chinese,  imported  by  and  for  the  purposes  of  British 


INTRODUCTORY.  S 

enterprise,  were  living  and  working  for  masters  in 
that  out-of-the-way  colony.  They  had  immigrated 
under  a  system  approved  by  the  Colonial  Office.  The 
Indian  Government  and  that  of  British  Guiana  were 
also  parties  to  it,  as  regarded  the  Coolies,  and  the 
Chinese  Government  as  regarded  its  own  ciu^ens. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that,  as  I  have 
above  hinted,  the  Coolie  question  is  of  far  larger 
dimensions  than  is  implied  by  the  last  statement. 
Other  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  such  as  Trinidad  and 
Jamaica,  have  their  Coolies,  and  are  eagerly  looking 
for  more  ;  and  in  ]\Iauritius  alone  over  two  hundred 
thousand  of  these  expatriated  people  demand  British 
protection  and  care.  In  the  United  States  of  America 
and  in  Australasia  the  movement  already  commenced 
for  the  importation  of  Eastern  labour  foreshadows  a 
time  when  this  will  be  among  the  greatest  of  social- 
political  subjects,  when  the  statesman  and  the  econo- 
mist will  alike  need  to  exercise  all  their  astuteness  in 
solving  its  perpetually-increasing  problems. 

These  immigrants  landed  in  Demerara,  almost  every 
one  of  them,  actually  or  practically  under  a  bond  of 
indenture.  By  that  indenture  entered  into  in  their 
own  country  with  the  Guiana  Executive,  they  had 
agreed  generally  to  serve  for  five  years  any  master 
assigned  to  them  by  that  Executive. 

Here,  for  instance,  let  me  give  a  paragraph  or  two 
of  the  indenture  of  my  friend  and  qiwndam  host,  Lum 
a  Yung.  "  j\Iade  the  l6th  day  of  December,  in  the 
year  of  the  Christian  era,  being  the  3rd  day  of  the 
1 2th  month  of  the  gth  year  of  the  reign  of  Hiefung 
according  to  the  Chinese  Imperial  Calendar."  By 
this  document,  in  bad  English  and  good  Chinese  side 
by  side,  the  said  Lum  a  Yung  bound  himself  to  "John 
Gardiner  Austin,  Special  Agent  of  the  British  Govern- 
7nent/ur  the  regulating  and  encouragement  of  Emigration 
from  China  to  the  British  West  hidies." 


6  THE  COOLIE. 

"  I.  That  the  said  party  of  the  first  part  shall  and 
will,  so  soon  as  he  shall  be  required,  embark  on  the 
ship  Dora  now  lying  at  anchor  in  the  harbour  of 
Hong  Kong-,  and  bound  for  the  colony  of  British 
Guiana,  and  remain  on  board  the  said  ship  hencefor- 
ward until  she  proceeds  to  sea,  and  shall  then  proceed 
as  a  passenger  on  board  the  said  ship  to  British 
Guiana,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  stipula- 
tions hereinafter  contained  on  the  part  of  the  said 
party  of  the  first  part. 

"  2.  That  the  said  party  of  the  first  part  shall  and 
will  from  time  to  time  and  at  all  times  during  the 
term  of  five  years,  to  be  computed,  &c., — well,  faith- 
fully, and  diligently,  and  according  to  the  best  of  his 
skill  and  ability,  work  and  serve  as  an  agricultural 
labourer,  in  the  said  colony  according  to  the  provi- 
sions hereinafter  contained. 

"  3.  That  the  said  party  of  the  first  part  shall  and 
will  work  as  such  labourer  as  aforesaid  for  the  space 
of  seven  houro  and  a  half  of  each  day  during  the  afore- 
said term  of  five  years,  on  such  estate  as  may  be 
pointed  out  by  the  Governor  of  British  Guiana,  with 
a  reservation  of  not  less  than  five  days  to  be  set  apart 
during  each  year  as  holidays  a.t  i.  j  China  New  Year 
by  the  said  Governor,  and  of  every  Sabbath  day." 

In  return  for  this  the  "Agent  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment "  contracted,  so  long  as  the  immigrant  per- 
formed his  part  of  the  agreement,  to  cause  to  be  paid 
to  him  weekly  "  the  same  rate  of  wages  for  the  same 
proportionate  quantity  of  Avork  as  may  from  time  to 
time  be  paid  to  unindented  labourers  working  on  the 
same  plantation,"  and  to  cause  to  be  provided  for 
him  house,  garden-ground,  and  medical  attendance 
free  of  expense. 

Here,  then,  in  a  few  authentic  words  have  we 
sketched  out  for  us  a  first  outline  of  the  w^hole  scheme 
of  Coolie  Immigration — the  immigrant's  contract  and 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

that  of  his  employer — a  transport  system  under  direct 
supervision,  through  an  agent,  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. This  contract  is,  however,  to  be  performed  in 
British  Guiana,  is  affected  in  many  ways  by  its  laws, 
and  is  to  be  enforced  in  its  courts.  The  laws,  there- 
fore, and  the  character  of  the  persons  who  administer 
them,  are  of  first  importance  to  the  Coolie.  Seven 
hours  and  a  half  a  day,  six  days  a  week,  for  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  consecutive  weeks,  is  Lum  a  Yung's 
or  Ramsahi's  contract  with  an  unknown  master.  Is 
he  idle  ?  Is  he  sick  ?  Is  he  ageing  and  weak  r  Is  he 
malingering r  Or  :  Is  he  cheated?  Is  he  maltreated?  Is 
he  efficiently  doctored — fed  with  good  food  when  sick 
— carefully  tended  in  hospital  ?  Some  one  on  the 
spot  is  constantly  needed  of  absolute  shrewd  inde- 
pendence to  answer  these  questions,  when  occasion 
requires,  authoritatively,  yea  or  nay,  in  the  interest  of 
master  or  servant.  Every  one  will  see  in  a  moment 
what  a  vast  numrer  of  issues  may  arise  out  of  this 
singular  apprenticeship. 

I  cannot  more  readily  and  succinctly  bring  before 
my  readers  the  nature  of  the  issues  involved  in  the 
late  inquiry  than  by  referring  them  to  two  woodcuts, 
copied  from  caricatures  executed  and  brought  to  me 
in  Georgetown  by  a  clever  Chinese  immigrant,  who 
had  been  a  schoolmaster  in  his  own  country.  The 
originals — obviously  Chinese  in  style  and  execu- 
tion, and  I  am  assured  original  in  their  invention 
— are  coloured,  and  several  times  larger  than  the 
'spirited  reproduction  by  the  artist.  Not  only  have 
they  the  quaint  artistic  ingenuity  of  the  Chinese,  but 
they  will  give  an  idea  of  the  shrewdness  and  cunning 
ability  which  are  common  to  all  these  Asiatic  immi- 
grants in  stating  and  systematizing  their  grievances. 

The  picture  on  p.  8  is  a  tolerably  fair  representa- 
tion of  a  manager's  house  on  its  brick  pillars.  To 
the  left,  at  the  bottom  of  the  picture,  is  a  free  Coolie 


THE  COOLIE. 


INTRODUCTORY.  g 

driving  his  cattle.  To  the  right  a  rural  constable  is 
seizing  an  unhappy  pigtail  to  convey  him  to  the  lock- 
up, being  absent,  as  we  see,  from  the  band  just  above 
him,  with  his  arms  unbound.  This  indicates  that  he 
is  trying  to  avoid  the  restraints  of  his  indenture,  and 
for  this  he  is  liable  to  punishment.  Above  him,  on  the 
right  of  the  picture,  is  a  group  of  Chinese,  and  on  the 
left  of  the  steps  a  group  of  Coolies,  represented  with 
their  arms  bound,  an  emblem  of  indentureship.  They 
always  speak  of  themselves  as  "  bound  "  when  under 
indenture.  At  the  foot  of  the  steps,  on  either  side, 
is  a  Chinaman  and  a  Coolie,  from  whose  breasts  two 
drivers  are  drawing  blood  with  a  knife,  the  life  fluid 
being  caught  by  boys  in  the  swizzle-glasses  of  the 
colony.  A  boy  is  carrying  the  glasses  up  the  steps 
to  the  attorney  and  the  manager,  who  sit  on  the  left 
of  the  verandah,  and  who  are  obviously  fattening  at 
the  expense  of  the  bound  people  below  them.  A  tat 
wife  and  children  look  out  of  the  windows.  Behind, 
through  a  break  in  the  wall,  are  represented  the 
happy  and  healthy  owners  in  England  ;  to  the  right, 
under  the  tree,  through  a  gap  in  the  fence,  are  aged 
Chinese,  weeping  over  their  unhappy  relatives.  In 
the  right-hand  corner  of  the  verandah  is  the  pay- 
table,  with  the  overseers  discussing  and  arranging 
stoppages  of  wages.  The  smoking  chimney  of  the 
kitchen  and  the  horse  eating  his  provender  seem  to 
be  intended  to  contrast  with  the  scene  in  front.  This, 
then,  gives  a  picturesquely  sentimental  and  satiriciil 
aspect  of  the  grievances  likely  to  arise  under  the 
Coolie  system. 

The  picture  which  forms  our  frontispiece  represents 
1  more  specific  issue — that  upon  the  point  of  treatment 
in  hospital.  Here  we  have  a  hospital,  a  larg(>,  airy 
building.  On  the  left,  through  the  windows,  two  men 
are  shown  in  the  stocks.  Whether  these  were  used  or 
not  upon  any  estates  was  an  important  question  in  the 


10  THE  COOLIE. 

inquiry.  Next,  to  the  right,  are  bedsteads,  on  which  lie 
the  patients.  The  nearest,  a  Chinaman,  is  just  expir- 
ing, spite  of  the  chicken  soup — vide  the  chicken  in  the 
basin — which  has  been  supplied  to  him  in  extremis. 
The  question  of  the  actual  supply  of  nourishing  food 
in  the  hospitals  when  ordered  by  the  doctors  was 
another  point  raised  by  the  Commission.  Again,  in 
the  middle  we  see  two  stout  immigrants  whom  the 
doctor,  sitting  in  the  chair,  is  tenderly  treating",  while 
the  manager  kicks  down  the  steps  a  meagre  wretch, 
too  weak  to  be  worth  curing.  Another  issue — are 
all  the  immigrants  equally  and  properly  tre:ited  in 
hospital  ?  Look  at  the  stout  black  nurse  standing 
beside  the  "  diet-list,"  whereon  is  officially  inscribed, 
in  Chinese,  Indian,  and  English,  the  scale  of  diet, 
by  which  any  patient  who  can  read  may  ascertain 
whether  the  doctor's  instructions  are  carried  out  as 
regards  him  or  his  fellows.  Beyond,  in  the  room 
to  the  right,  is  the  black  man's  favourite,  feeding  on 
the  dainties  and  porter  ordered  for  the  patients.  A 
clear  question  raised  here — Whether  the  subordinates 
do  not  cheat  both  their  masters  and  the  Coolies?  Be- 
low we  see  the  doctor's  horse,  well  fed;  to  the  left,  the 
manager's  pigs,  well  fed  ;  and  about  and  under  the 
house,  crowing  and  fighting  cocks,  well  fed  ;  while 
thin  wretches  hoe  the  ground,  and  a  desperate  China- 
man hangs  himself  from  the  verandah.  All  this  is 
powerfully  satirical.  And,  lastly,  we  have  the  black 
cook  issuing  the  rations,  and  stirring  the  chicken 
broth — the  chicken  all  the  while  running  about  safely 
outside  the  pot ! 

These  illustrations,  then,  are  curious  as  embodying 
in  caricature  much  of  the  case  advanced  in  the  inquiry 
on  behalf  of  the  Coolies,  and  the  proof  or  disproof  of 
which  is  so  vitally  serious  to  the  planters.  It  is, 
perhaps,  in  favour  of  the  latter,  before  any  evidence 
is  produced  either   way,  that    an    immigrant   could 


INTRODUCTORY.  ii 

treat  the  question  with  such  humour — grim  though 
it  be.  A  letter,  dated  Christmas-day,  i86g,  was 
addressed  to  Earl  Granville,  then  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Colonies,  by  Mr.  George  W.  Des  Voeux,  the 
Administrator  at  St.  Lucia,  who  had  for  five  years 
been  a  stipendiary  magistrate  in  British  Guiana. 
This  letter  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix.*  Lord 
Granville,  after  communicating  it  to  the  India  Office, 
in  March  following  ordered  an  inquiry.  Sir  George 
Young,  Bart.,  a  junior  barrister,  but  a  man  of  dis- 
tinction for  his  varied  abilities,  was  appointed  a 
Commissioner,  and  had  gone  out  to  join  ]\Ir.  Charles 
]\Iitchell,  of  Trinidad,  nominated  by  a  direction  of  the 
Colonial  Ofhce  sent  to  Mr.  Gordon,  Governor  of  that 
island. t  I  expected  to  find  the  Commission  at  work 
on  my  arrival  in  Georgetown. 

*  See  Appendix  A. 

t  In  the  paper  in  Good  Words  I  used  language  which  perhaps  may 
have  conveyed  the  impression  that  Governor  Gordon  had  some  part  in 
this  nomination.  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  of  much  consequence,  but  I  am 
authoritatively  informed  that  Mr.  Mitchell's  appointment  was  solely  that 
of  the  Colonial  Office,  and  that  Governor  Gordon  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  TERMINI — AND   BETWEEN". 

"  "\7'0U  must  be  at  Southampton,  sir,  to  leave  by  the 
X  tender,  at  half-past  eleven  to-morrow,"  said 
the  clerk  in  Moorgate  Street.  Early,  therefore,  was  the 
rising,  and  thrilling  the  family  excitement,  in  order  that 
I  might  catch  the  eight-o'clock  train.  I  was  going 
alone  beyond  seas  for  indefinite  months,  into  strange 
regions,  with  black  reputations  in  health  matters, 
and  on  business  of  deep  importance.  Enough  to  make 
the  time  anxious.  And  here  I  am  at  my  door,  the 
cab  loaded,  the  serv^ants — as,  God  bless  'em  !  they 
are  wont  to  do  when  one  goes  away  from  home — tear- 
fully watching  to  bid  me  godspeed,  when  nurse 
comes  down  with  two  bright,  curly-haired  babes,  and 
I  take  them  in  my  arms,  and  over  the  pink  cheeks 
and  dimpling,  smiling  faces  my  eyes  grow  hazy  as  I 

give  a  long  embrace. 

****** 

How  well  I  remember  the  day ! — the  dull,  grey 
London  morning,  through  which  my  cab  so  slowly 
wended  ;  the  only  gadabouts — sweep,  newsboy,  green- 
grocer's cart,  and  men  and  women  hurrying  to  their 
work ;  and  here,  in  Rochester  Row,  a  morning  crowd, 
ah !  how  unfresh  looking !  clustered  round  some 
object  on  the  pavement,  with  two  policemen  prepar- 
ing a  stretcher  to  carry  it.    What  ?  and  whither  ? 


THE  TERMINI— AND  BETWEEN.  13 

This  was  a  Friday  morning  in  June.  On  the  pre- 
vious Friday,  sitting  in  my  chambers,  thinking  least 
of  such  an  enterprise,  there  entered  two  friends.  One 
said — • 

"  E.,  will  you  go  to  Demerara  ?  " 
"  What's  the  matter  ?     A  commission  ?  " 
'*  A  commission — but  not  merely  legal :  one  Kjils^n^'^ 
by  Lord  Granville  to  inquire  into  the  Coolie  syste'^    .;t 
British  Guiana.     A  ]\Ir.  Des  Voeux,  who  was  for-    ,riv 
a  stipendiary  magistrate  there,  and  is  now  Adminis- 
trator at  St.   Lucia,  has   written    home  a   despatch 
bringing  some  grave   charges  against   the    plant-- 
Two  societies,  the  Aborigines  Protection   and  Anti- 
Slavery,  wish  to  have  the  Coolies  properly  represented 
by  counsel  on  the  Inquiry.     Will  you  go  ?     You  must 
be  ready  by  Thursday." 

Hence,  reader,  on  the  succeeding  Friday  morning 
I  was,  as  I  have  described,  starting  for  Southampton, 
with  a  home  guard  of  honour  to  see  me  safely  out  of 
the  country.  Southampton  is  a  sorry  place  to  leave 
or  to  arrive  at.  Go  not  down  by  the  latest  train, 
else  this  is  the  treatment  to  which,  as  a  passenger  by 
the  Royal  Mail  Steam  Packet  Company's  vessel.-,  you 
will  be  subjected.  Your  baggage,  after  suffering 
much  at  the  hands  of  the  railway  porters,  is  seized 
upon  by  a  selection  of  rough  persons,  possessing 
go-carts  of  doubtful  capacity.  If  you  imagine  that  a 
small  solatium  to  the  one  who  happens  to  appro- 
priate your  parcels  will  insure  their  delivery  on 
board  the  steamer,  you  are  egregiously  hopeful.  He 
trots  you  along  a  dirty  street,  and  suddenly  turns 
in  at  a  gateway.  There  he  and  you  are  brought  up 
by  ten  or  fitteen  other  go-carts,  with  as  many  groups 
of  passengers.  Presently,  an  individual  emerges 
hastily  from  a  wooden  hut,  and  after  examining  one 
vehicle,  rushes  in  again,  followed  by  a  number  of 
passengers  and  porters. 


14  THE  COOLIE. 

"Porter,  what's  the  matter?" — "Dock  dues,  sir." — 
"IIow  much?" — "That  depends,  sir,  on  the  size 
and  number  of  the  parcels.  There's  the  man  who 
settkis  it."  In  about  fifteen  minutes  the  man  who 
settles  it  reaches  my  indifferent  paraphernalia.  "  Five 
shillings,  sir ! " — "  Five  shillings  !  What  for  ? "  "  Dock 
dues,  sir."  He  looks  hard  at  your  pockets  to  see  if 
you  have  any  chargeable  parcel  concealed  about 
you. 

Having  been  bled  at  the  entrance  of  these  docks, 
yo\i  proceed,  at  the  peril  of  your  limbs  and  baggage, 
and  to  the  discomfort  of  your  corns,  to  thread  your 
way  through  goods  and  railway  trucks,  for  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  or  so,  until  at  last  you  reach  a  shed.  More 
officials.  "  Have  your  baggage  measured  here,  sir." 
"  Take  a  ticket,  sir.  Aly  boat's  at  your  service." — "  I 
don't  want  it ;  I'm  going  in  the  tender." — "  They  won't 
let  you  take  your  things  in  the  tender,  sir ;  only  the 
little  ones."  Sure  enough  I  w^as  forced  to  engage 
this  fellow  for  three-and-six  to  take  my  baggage  on 
board,  and  pay  the  porter  four  shillings  besides. 

I  don't  know  whether  the  Royal  Mail  Steamship 
Company  will  care  for  my  opinion  in  these  matters, 
but  I  think  the  few  shillings  per  passenger  which  it 
would  cost  to  satisfy  the  greed  of  the  Dock  Company 
would  be  well  spent  in  securing  the  arrival  on  board 
their  steamers  of  passengers  in  a  contented  frame  of 
mind.  'Tis  bad  enough  at  all  times  to  be  leaving 
your  own  blessed  country,  without  the  additional 
harassment  of  being  fleeced  of  your  money  and  your 
temper  at  the  last  moment.  The  Company  must 
permit  me  to  have  this  growl  at  them.  Saving  the 
propensity  of  their  sailors  to  rack  and  ruin  your 
luggage,  you  are  given  no  other  pretence  for  com- 
plaint till  you  reach  your  destination. 

However,  here  we  are  on  board  the  tender.  Signs 
of  the  "West  Indies  already  surround  us,  in  groups  of 


THE  TERMINI— AND  BETWEEN.  15 

pale  Creole  children,  attended  by  black  nurses,  one 
or  two  decidedly  brown  babies,  and  several  pompous- 
looking-,  half-breed  gentlemen,  tr}dng  to  look  as  white 
as  possible.  And  here  are  three  Scotch  deer-hounds 
in  leash,  a  couple  of  bull-terriers,  and  a  Skye,  ciceroned 
by  a  sturdy,  short-necked,  bull-headed  man,  his 
quaint  face  decorated  with  a  moustache.  ]\lore  of 
this  gentleman  anon ;  but  he  was  soon  dubbed  the 
"dog-stealer"  by  a  military  wag.  We  are  to  have 
a  large  representation  of  the  army  on  board — British 
and  otherwise :  the  general  commanding  the  forces 
in  the  West  Indies  and  family,  going  to  assume  his 
command  at  Barbadoes ;  the  military  secretary  and 
aide-de-camp  ;  two  young  officers  going  to  Yokohama, 
roid  Panama  and  San  Francisco  ;  here  also  is  a  Deme- 
rara  merchant  and  planter  with  his  natural  and 
charming  impedimenta.  Lucky  Englishman  he  who 
fell  in  with  such  good  company !  The  Peruvian 
army  is  represented  by  a  colonel  of  engineers — the 
Venezuelan,  by  a  general  and  his  aide-de-camp. 
Nothing  could  be  more  amusing  or  significant  than 
the  contrast  between  the  South  American  and  the 
English  general.  One  a  quiet,  grave,  noble-looking 
gentleman,  with  valour  and  honour  written  on  every 
lineament ;  the  other  a  tall,  dapper-looking  stripling, 
not  unhandsome,  dressed  as  a  man  would  dress  for  the 
Paris  boulevards,  and  certainly  more  like  a  dancing- 
master  than  a  martinet.  Of  him,  by  the  way,  a  good 
story  eked  out  on  the  voyage.  He  was  presented  to 
the  late  Emperor  Napoleon,  who  asked  him  "how 
the  war  between  Paraguay  and  Venezuela  was 
going  on  ?" — a  geographical  blunder  which  even 
Venezuelan  politeness  could  not  refrain  from  correct- 
ing. This  general  had  been  summoned  home  to  his 
distracted  country  by  one  of  its  chronic  revolutions, 
and  it  was  a  current  joke  on  board  that,  until  he 
reached   home,   he   could   not  tell   the  name  of  his 


1 6  THE  COOLIE. 

country  or  its  form  of  government.  But  I  am  fore- 
stalling the  voyage.  The  Seine  proved  to  be  a  noble 
vessel — paddle-wheel  and  steady.  This  was  said 
to  be  her  last  voyage  to  the  West  Indies — though  she 
has  made  sev^eral  "last  voyages"  since — economic 
considerations  and  the  demand  for  speed  compelling 
the  substitution  for  this  sedate  ship  of  one  of  those 
drunken,  restless,  quivering,  squirming  screws,  in- 
vented for  swiftness  and  the  distraction  of  weak 
stomachs.  The  rage  for  rapid  transit,  which  is  divest- 
ing travel  of  everything  but  bore  and  anguish,  was 
about  to  consign  this  fine  boat — so  quiet,  so  dignified 
in  her  motions,  so  tender  of  the  tenderest  feelings — 
to  the  conveyance  of  stores  or  emigrants — happy 
emigrants  !  What  she  was  to  me — who  on  the  ocean 
live  the  life  of  a  dog — my  pen  can  never  express.  I 
have  sailed  in  many  ships,  but  never  in  one  so  reason- 
able in  the  infliction  of  the  necessary  torments  of  the 
deep — torments  not  to  be  allayed,  not  to  be  calmed, 
not  to  be  conquered  by  endurance,  or  diminished  by 
faith,  or  reduced  by  brandy-and-water :  sorrows  ever 
new,  remorseless,  never  from  you  while  you  toss  upon 
the  egregious  waves. 

I  have  heard  people  talk  of  the  Atlantic  being  like 
a  mill-pond.  Save  me  from  such  a  mill-pond!  Smooth 
passages !  They  called  this  one  a  smooth  passage  ; 
but  it  was  the  cruellest  hyperbole  of  compliment  to 
Neptune.  Nausea  getting  up,  nausea  lying  down, 
nausea  on  deck,  nausea  in  the  cabin,  nausea  for 
breakfast,  dinner,  tea — nauseas  multiplied,  aggra- 
vated, unceasing.  Yet  she  was  clean  and  void  of  sea 
smells ;  and  of  her  captain  and  first  officer  (soon  to 
be  a  captain  himself,  let  me  hope)  I  can  only  say,  if  I 
must  go  to  sea,  send  me  with  them.  Captain  Moir 
and  ]\Ir.  Dix  should  be  treasured  by  the  Company — ■ 
they  are  infallible  favourites  with  the  passengers. 
What  think  you  of  a  first  officer  who  is  a  superior 


THE  TERMINI — AND  BETWEEN.  x-j 

navigator,  a  scientific  man,  a  gentleman  of  literary 
and  classical  tastes,  who  discusses  with  you  the  law 
of  meteors,  or  Lyell's  geological  speculations,  or 
Darwin's  theory,  or  quotes  and  analyzes  Horace, 
or  reviews  with  sensible  and  informed  acumen  the 
passing  history  of  his  day,  or  plays  a  clever  game  of 
chess  r  You  do  not  often  encounter  such  talent  even 
among  the  superior  officers  of  our  marine. 

We  steamed  out  to  sea.  I  was  an  invalid  when  I 
went  on  board,  and  succumbed  to  the  adversity  of 
motion.  After  a  day  or  two,  however,  the  lucky 
weather  brought  us  all  on  deck — the  abject  foreigners, 
the  poor  French  lady  who  had  sat  moaning  in  the  cuddy, 
the  stout  Dutch  dame  who,  for  forty-eight  hours, 
rested  her  double  chin  upon  her  ample  bosom  in  a 
state  of  adipose  imbecility,  ventured  up  to  breathe 
the  softening  air.  The  pretty  Hamburg  girl,  belle 
of  the  voyage,  whose  pink  cheek  faded  for  a  short 
time,  came  forth  revived  in  colour  and  spirits,  and  all 
turned  from  sour  subjective  contemplations  to  seek 
some  objective  means  of  amusement. 

A  copy  of  "  Lothair "  went  the  rounds,  spite  of 
Blackwood's  criticism.  The  young  men  took  to  play- 
ing "Bull" — a  game  which  consists  of  attempts  to 
pitch  leaden  quoits  into  squares,  in  defiance  of  sea- 
motion — or  whiled  away  the  afternoons  with  whist. 
At  night  the  piano  and  violin  entertained  us  with 
lively  airs,  to  which  there  was  an  occasional  dance. 
Did  you  ever  try  to  dance  upon  a  deck  which  was 
continually  coming  up  and  slapping  your  feet  ?  Or 
we  gossiped  with  each  other  about  every  one  else 
and  every  one  else's  business.  It  was  useless  for 
any  one  to  try  to  be  mysterious.  His  name,  occupa- 
tion, destination,  characteristics,  were  ferreted  out, 
and  discussed  with  amusing  ceindour  of  remark. 
Stories  were  largely  contributed  —  many  of  them 
"yarns"  on  the  face  of  them— some  of  the  best  by 

c 


1 8  THE  COOLIE. 

President  P .      No  better  travelling  companion  or 

more  thorough  and  genial  fellow  to  be  found  in  a 
round-the-world  journey:  a  man  of  many  travels 
and  experiences.  This  very  voyage  he  is  going  back 
to  his  government  under  circumstances  that  are 
singularly  rare.  Conducting  it,  some  time  back,  in  a 
thorough,  honest,  John  Bull  way,  he  excited  the  hatred 
of  some  of  his  dusky  subjects.  Accordingly  they 
slipped  some  arsenic  into  a  bottle  of  medicine  that 
stood  on  his  dressing-table.  Only  a  powerful  con- 
stitution saved  his  life  after  three  doses  of  this 
infernal  mixture.  He  had  returned  home  with  his 
family  to  recover,  and  was  now  sent  back  again  by 
the  Colonial  Minister  for  the  oddest  reason  that  ever 
occurred  even  to  such  an  official.  At  least,  so  the 
joke  went.  It  had  been  found  impossible  to  detect  the 
perpetrator  of  the  crime  which  had  so  nearly  touched 
the  president's  life ;  but  the  cool  gentlemen  at  the 
Colonial  Office,  sitting  there  three  or  four  thousand 
miles  from  "Obe"  and  danger,  said  it  would  never  do  to 
let  the  natives  imagine  they  could  poison  a  governor! 
So  my  agreeable  friend  was  returning  to  face  his 
enemies  and  assert  the  principle  that  a  president 
cannot  be  poisoned.  What  if  they  had  poisoned  him  ? 
A  propos  of  the  president's  government,  he  told  us 
that  his  council  or  island  parliament  legislated  in 
accordance  with  the  personal  interests  of  the  majority. 
If  the  merchants  succeeded  in  getting  the  prepon- 
derance, they  abolished  taxation  on  imports,  and  laid 
the  burthen  on  the  estates  of  the  planters,  who,  when 
their  turn  came,  simply  reversed  the  process.  On  one 
occasion  there  was  a  proposal  to  tax  donkeys,  of 
which  large  numbers  had  been  imported  into  the 
island  for  the  porterage  of  produce,  a  labour  usually 
performed  by  blacks.  One  of  the  legislators — him- 
self a  large  importer  of  donkeys — enraged  at  this 
proposal,  made  a  speech,  concluding   thus:   "I  can 


THE  TERMINI— AND  BETWEEN.  19 

only  say,  if  donkeys  are  to  be  taxed,  it's  time  I  left 
the  island."  A  clear  case  of  "  Write  me  down  an 
ass,"  as  a  lady  friend  suggests. 

Wonderful,  too,  were  the  tales  of  our  friend  "  the 
dog-stealer  " — no  harm  meant  by  the  appellation.  It 
is  luciis  a  non,  for  an  honest  fellow  was  our  Lima 
friend.     He  is  telling  us  of  his  last  voyage  : — 

"  Last  time  I  came  out — eh  ?  there  were  three 
bishops  and  about  twenty  ecclesiastics — eh  r  going 
to  the  council.  There  was  great  fun — eh?  The  Arch- 
bishop of  L was  one — eh  ?  He  was  a  comfort- 
able little  man — eh  ?  He  liked  well  his  glass  of  grog 
— eh  r  One  Sunday  morning  there  was  a  service,  and 
he  was  to*  preach — eh  ?  I  happened  to  go  down  to 
ihe  saloon,  and  the  archbishop  and  one  of  the  priests 
— his  secretary,  eh  ? — were  sitting  taking  something 
out  of  a  bottle — eh  ?  I  spoke  to  him,  and  he  said — 
'  This  is  a  most  delicious  drink  ;  I  have  never  tasted 
it  before.'  I  said,  *  What  is  it  r '  '  Whiskey  ! '  *  Oh,' 
I  said,  *  whiskey,  I  know  it  very  well.'  They  were 
drinking  it  neat — eh  ?  I  called  for  another  bottle  and 
mixed  some  for  them. — eh  r  and  we  finished  the  bottle. 
You  should  have  seen  the  archbishop — eh  ?  He  could 
scarcely  stand  up  for  the  service,  and  when  the  time 
came  to  give  the  sermon  he  had  to  take  hold  of  the 
bench  and  go  along  so — eh  ?  He  could  only  say  a 
few  sentences — eh  r  He  went  to  his  cabin,  and  we 
never  saw  him  again  during  the  voyage — eh  ?  The 
captain  was  a  jolly  fellow — big,  fat,  full  of  fun  ;  and 
every  morning  he  used  to  say  to  the  ecclesiastics  (he 
talked  Spanish  well),  '  Ah  !  his  grace  the  archbishop, 
how  is  he  to-day  ?  Is  his  grace  still  marcado — eh  ? 
You  know  mareado  is  Spanish  for  sea- sick ;  but  then 
it  also  means  sometimes  what  you  call  tight — eh  V 

Spite  of  the  fine  weather,  our  progress  was  slow,  so 
that  we  did  not  pass  Sombrero  until  a  fortnight  from 
the  day  on  which  we  left  Southampton,  steaming  by 


20  THE  COOLIE. 

the  way  close  to  Terccira,  and  just  sighting  Pico.  It 
seemed  to  my  eyes,  after  the  sad  sea-sick  days  which 
had  dragged  so  heavily,  as  if  these  Eden-like  Western 
islands  were  the  better  land  wherein  we  ought  to  stay 
and  gain  some  solace  for  our  purgatory  of  the  deep. 
So  green,  so  softened  in  the  haze,  basking  so  sweetly 
in  the  sun  amid  the  fair  waves,  with  vineyards  and 
orange  groves,  and  the  little  white  cottages  dotting 
the  hillsides,  I  think  if  I  wished  some  Rasselas  retreat 
I  should  seek  it  in  one  of  these  glorious  isles  of  the  sea. 
St.  Thomas  is  a  pretty  place,  as  you  steam  in 
between  the  fair  lips  of  its  harbour,  and  see  it  rising 
round  the  basin  formed  by  the  green  hills,  its  red 
roofs  and  white  walls  brightening  in  the  sun.  But  a 
few  whiffs  of  its  air  oppress  you.  It  is  a  fever  furnace 
by  construction.  The  thick  waters  of  the  harbour 
seem  to  change  but  seldom,  and  a  hurricane  there 
ought  to  be  a  blessing  as  a  sanitary  revolution.  I  did 
not  land,  but  watched  the  busy  scene  about  the  ship, 
and  tried  to  forget  the  fever  heat  that  came  throbbing 
off  the  shore.  Round  the  steamer  swarmed  the 
Negro  boatmen  in  crafts  of  fancy  names — "  Cham- 
pagne Charlie,"  "  j\Iy  Eyes'  Darling,"  and  the  like. 
They  were  kept  away  from  the  gangways  with  diffi- 
culty ;  but  I  observed  that  a  little  carbolic  acid 
thrown  by  the  boatswain  upon  a  sturdy  black  mon- 
ster produced  a  striking  effect,  not  only  on  him,  but 
on  the  enthusiasm  of  his  rivals.  Large  lighters 
laden  with  coal  were  soon  alongside  the  Seine. 
Young  Negro  women,  scantily  clothed,  garments 
tucked  up  above  the  knee,  carried  the  coal  into  the 
steamer  on  their  heads  in  baskets,  chattering  and 
singing  the  while.  I  have  seen  few  English 
navvies  work  so  hard  or  so  persistently ;  but  they 
were  paid  by  the  basket.  No  Negro  man  I  afterwards 
saw  in  the  West  Indies  came  up  to  these  girls  in 
energy  and  vigour. 


THE  TERMINI— AND  BETWEEN  21 

Here  we  were  transferred  into  a  smaller  steamer, 
the  Mersey.  Going  on  board  this  vessel,  I  observed 
a  jolly-looking  gentleman  in  a  light  coat  and  a  straw 
hat,  whose  build  was  after  the  lines  of  Daniel  Lam- 
bert. This  proved  to  be  the  captain.  Another  indi- 
vidual was  racked  gymnastically  on  a  seat  and  its 
back  at  full  length.  He  was  the  captain's  reverse  as 
to  size,  and  turned  out  to  be  the  purser.  Captain 
Herbert  treated  me  with  great  kindness  on  my  way 
home,  and  I  owe  him  my  gratitude.  The  purser 
needs  no  comment. 

For  three  days  we  steamed  past  the  wondrous 
islands,  furrowed,  ribbed,  and  riven,  lifting  up  their 
shaggy  heads  into  the  clear  sky,  while  below  they 
nourished  here  and  there  in  pretty  laps  an  exquisitely 
bright  green  vegetation. 

The  glory  of  Dominica  and  of  IMartinique  is  inde- 
scribable— their  luxuriant,  savage  beauty,  their  lofty 
peaks,  long  jagged  defiles,  crowded  with  rich  vegeta- 
tion, and  the  occasional  stretch  of  vales,  smooth  with 
sugar-canes  when  seen  from  the  water,  but  no  doubt 
rough  enough  to  the  toilers  in  their  marshy  furrows. 
At  St.  Lucia,  where  we  arrived  after  midnight,  we 
transhipped  into  the  Arno — not  a  pleasant  operation, 
though  a  change  for  the  better.  I  should  like  some 
of  the  directors  of  the  steamship  company  to  send 
some  boxes  of  crockery  by  this  route  for  an  experi- 
ment. A  clean  ship,  pleasant  officers,  and  fair  wea- 
ther conjoined  to  support  our  spirits,  rather  drooping 
after  nearly  three  weeks  of  the  sea. 

At  Barbadoes  we  left  most  of  our  passengers, 
among  them  my  friends  the  General  and  Mrs.  ]\I., 
their  lively  little  daughter,  and  those  ever-pleasant, 
fun-dispensing  officers  of  the  staff.  After  we  had 
seen  them  off  in  the  large  garrison  boat,  the  remnant 
of  us  turned  morose,  and  looked  rather  scurviJy  at 
each  other  for  some  hours. 


2  2  THE  COOLIE. 

At  last,  on  Thursday  afternoon,  July  the  7th,  the 
officers  went  forward  with  their  glasses  to  look  for 
the  lightship.  Hurrah  !  There  she  is  ten  miles  off; 
we  shall  be  in  by  five  o'clock.  For  fifty  miles  out  we 
have  been  cleaving  a  dirty  green  liquid,  tinged  by 
the  mud  of  the  Essequibo,  Demerara,  perhaps  even 
the  Orinoco.  Now  we  are  in  simple  dun  ditch-water, 
and  the  active  nigger  on  the  paddle-box,  singing  out 
the  fathoms  as  he  casts  the  lead,  informs  us  that  our 
flijating  resources  are  dwindling.  Here's  the  light- 
ship rolling  in  the  swell,  and  here's  the  bar  whereon 
we  stick  fast,  but,  after  several  runs  at  the  obstacle, 
at  length  cut  through  into  Demerara  water.  The 
shore  at  this  short  distance  looks  no  more  than  a 
long  line  of  low  bank  with  a  light  palisade  of  cocoa 
and  cabbage  palms  marked  against  the  sky.  In 
front  we  presently  see  a  stretch  of  sea-wall  and  some 
white  houses  :  that  is  the  .  garrison.  Round  the 
corner  of  the  wall  and  past  the  lighthouse  into  a 
river — the  broad,  brown  river — and  at  our  left  reach 
away  the  flats,  the  stellings,  the  stores  and  sheds,  the 
low  white  jalousied  houses,  over  which  everywhere 
the  graceful  cabbage-palms  spread  their  green  wings. 
This  is  Georgetown,  Demerara.  Thermometer  85^ 
Fahr.,  time  five  P.M. 


CHAPTER  III. 

GEORGETOWN,    DEMERARA. 

A  LARGE  place,  and  a  busy  one.  Here  is  a  wide, 
muddy  river,  well  hampered  with  shipping, 
from  the  beautifully-modelled  schooners  and  sloops 
of  Orinoco  to  the  large  iron  Coolie  vessels  of  the 
Forth  or  the  Tyne — alive,  too,  with  small  craft.  The 
air  was  oppressive  even  in  the  late  afternoon.  The 
tide  was  out,  and  had  left  exposed  along  the  shore, 
and  beneath  the  stellings  or  jetties,  a  fetid,  ombreish 
mud,  very  suggestive  of  yellow  fever  to  a  fresh  and 
doubting  stranger.  My  friend  AI.  rescued  me  from 
the  troublesome  inquisitiveness  of  the  custom-house 
officers,  and  in  a  short  time  I  was  walking  up  a  broad 
street  to  the  hotel — Beckwith's,  said  to  be  the  best  in 
the  West  Indies — three  Negroes  carrying  my  traps 
on  their  heads.  I  had  landed  on  a  mud-bank  as  flat 
as  a  billiard-table.  The  wide  streets  are  bisected 
and  intersected  by  canals  and  open  drains,  vv'hich 
strike  me  unpleasantly.  I  should  have  thought 
worse  of  it  had  I  known,  what  I  afterwards  dis- 
covered, that  these  drains  can  only  be  emptied  at 
low  water.  Yet  my  first  reflection  is,  that  if  any  one 
retains  health  with  such  surroundings,  it  is  no  small 
evidence  of  natural  stamina.  On  either  side  of  the 
streets  are  two-storied  wooden  houses,  erected  on 
brick  pillars,  and  generally  furnished  with  jalousied 


2+  THE  COOLIE. 

verandahs.  Round  them,  often  in  rich  profusion,  are 
splendid  shrubs — the  flamboyant,  the  oleander,  the 
frangipanni — and  towering  over  these  the  cocoa  or 
cabbage  palm,  the  tamarind,  and  other  tropical  trees. 
So  that  looking  down  some  of  the  best  streets,  the 
effect,  with  the  smooth,  broad  canals,  fringed  with  a 
3-ard  or  two  of  grass,  is  very  pretty — albeit  very 
Dutch.  The  large  amount  of  land  appropriated  to 
streets,  gardens,  and  drainage  requires  for  the  popu- 
lation of  some  thirty  thousand  people  a  very  exten- 
sive area,  and  the  town  stretches  back  from  and 
along  the  river  on  a  square  of  three  or  four  miles. 
As  the  streets  are  laid  out  at  right  angles,  the  dis- 
tances are,  like  those  of  Washington,  "  magnificent." 
It  was  therefore  no  small  comfort  to  me  to  discover, 
the  day  after  my  arrival,  that  Anthony  Trollope's 
hint  about  cabs  had  been  taken,  and  that  very  decent 
vehicles  could  be  hired  at  any  time  of  day  for  one 
shilling  sterling  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  Horses  in  the 
tropics  are  constructed  to  go  at  a  uniform  rate  of 
speed  ;  hence  this  arrangement  is  not  so  unfair  as  time 
contracts  in  .London  are  apt  to  bo. 

Here  we  are  at  the  hotel.  Mine  host  is  as  stout  and 
jolly  an  Englishman  as  the  wolds  of  Yorkshire  ever 
saw — a  cattle  farmer  too — and  mine  hostess  a  kindly 
English  lady,  who  forthwith  recognises  in  me  a  big 
tropical  baby,  and  treats  me  accordingly  with  infinite 
maternal  benevolence.  Beckwith's  first  floor  is  simply 
a  wide  verandah  with  a  couple  of  large  rooms  inside 
it,  the  principal  being  devoted  to  the  gentlem.en  for 
all  purposes  but  sleeping.  I  am  shown  along  a 
passage  to  a  chamber  as  comfortable  as  the  house 
contains — '"Where  Sir  George  Young  slept,  sir!" — 
papered  over  the  boards,  the  upper  part  of  the  par- 
tition consisting  of  open  lattice-work.  I  can  hear 
almost  everything  that  is  going  on  through  the 
house.     The  heavy  heels  of  the  gentleman  above  me 


GEORGETOWN,  DEMERARA.  25 

clironicle  his  motions  ;  I  can  tell  to  a  nicety  when 
he  throws  off  his  boots,  hangs  up  his  coat,  doffs  his 
clothes  and  casts  them  on  a  chair,  winds  up  his 
watch,  and  jumps  into  bed  ;  nay,  in  the  morning  he 
produces  an  earthquake  when  he  rubs  the  JNIacassar 
into  his  hair.  I  can  hear  the  gentleman  who  has 
been  to  a  dinner-party  roll  along  the  passage,  and 
pitch  head  foremost  through  his  door.  I  can  hear 
him  swearing  at  his  shins  for  knocking  against  the 
chairs  ;  and,  should  he  be  taken  with  the  nausea  of 
intoxication,  I  am  forced  to  accord  him  an  unwilling 
sympathy.  But  is  not  everything  as  audible  in  every 
Demerara  dwelling  ?  With  all  this,  Beckwith's  is  as 
comfortable  an  hotel  as  heat  and  Negro  servants  will 
admit  of  in  those  latitudes. 

In  half  an  hour  I  am  seated  at  dinner  at  the 
table  d'hote.  Looking  round  curiously — it  is  rather 
crowded,  being  mail-day — I  find  I  am  among  gentle- 
men. They  are  mostly  of  the  Planter  kin.  They  all 
knoAV  who  I  am,  and  on  what  unpleasant  business 
1  have  come  among  them  ;  but  they  neither  stare  nor 
seem  to  make  remark.  My  neighbour  talks  genially 
about  the  climate,  though  much  engaged  in  con- 
suming what,  out  of  the  tropics,  would  be  an  honest 
couple  of  dinners  to  a  hearty  man.  A  stranger  comes 
up  to  me,  and  offers  to  introduce  me  to  the  club — 
an  old  Rugbean,  a  Cambridge  graduate,  a  travelled 
man,  a  gentleman — and  afterwards  in  every  way  to 
me  a  friend  was  R.  T.  H.,  who  thus  genially  tendered 
kindness  to  a  stranger.  A  waiter  approaches  me 
with  a  tray  and  glasses,  and  says  that  Mr.  C.  desires 
the  favour  of  wine  with  me.  In  fact,  I  am  put 
at  my  ease  immediately.  As  for  impertinent  com- 
missions, and  busy  philanthropists,  and  troublesome 
inquiries,  and  cross-examinations,  leave  those  to  the 
future — sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof. 
Meantime,  here  is  a  waif  cast  upon  Demerara  hospi- 


2  6  THE  COOLIE. 

tality,  and  Demerara  hospitality  is  large-hearted, 
honest,  and  genial.  Therefore,  when  I  go  over  to 
the  club,  pressing  offers  of  "  swizzles "  come  from 
all  quarters,  and  I  am  told  that  honorary  members 
are,  by  a  rule  of  the  club,  forbidden  to  pay  for  their 
**  drinks."  I  cannot  say  that  1  avoided  swizzles  in 
British  Guiana ;  but  I  took  them  cautiously.  A 
swizzle  consists  of  a  little  water  and  sugar,  a  good 
deal  of  gin  or  brandy,  and  a  dessert-spoonful  of 
angostura  bitters,  into  which  is  thrown  some  scraped 
ice,  and  the  whole  is  rapidly  whirled  round  by  a 
small  stick  with  branchlets  of  an  inch  long.  When 
it  looks  like  a  cool  muddy  froth  it  is  taken  down 
without  stopping.  I  should  be  inclined  to  back 
against  fever  the  man  who  never  took  a  swizzle — 
though  some  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  have  taken 
them  persistently  for  years.  They  are  seductive  and 
dangerous,  with  just  enough  of  tonic  element  to 
make  them  plausibly  medicinal,  just  enough  of  sti- 
mulating property  to  attract  one  wearied  with  the  in- 
cessant heat ;  but  without  much  vigorous  self-control 
I  am  convinced  that  the  first  is,  as  a  rule,  a  step  to 
the  second,  and  an  appetite  for  stimulants  in  such  a 
climate  as  that  is  a  deadly  snare. 

The  club  at  Georgetown  is,  to  the  gentlemen,  its 
most  important  institution.  It  is  a  huge  wooden 
building,  not  without  architectural  pretensions,  con- 
sisting of  two  floors — the  club-room  below,  and  a 
concert-room  above.  In  the  club-room  are  three 
billiard-tables  ;  outside  it,  on  the  windward  side,  a 
large  verandah,  with  tables  for  cards.  Here,  early 
in  the  morning,  a  few  old  stagers  come  before  break- 
fast to  take  their  swizzles ;  and  in  the  afternoon 
almost  every  gentleman  in  the  colony,  who  has 
nothing  to  do  and  is  conveniently  near,  lounges 
from  four  to  six.  There  is  no  charge  for  the  billiard- 
tables,  no  high  play,  and  the  exercise  is  just  arduous 


GEORGETOWN,  DEMERARA.  27 

enough  for  a  thermometer  at  80°.  I  said  this  Avas  an 
important  institution  for  gentlemen  ;  the  ladies,  un- 
fortunately, have  nothing  to  correspond.  The  huge 
room  up-stairs  is  rarely  used  for  balls  or  concerts. 
The  Demerara  folk  complain  loudly  of  their  salaried 
leaders  of  society.  It  is  even  alleged  that,  although 
these  receive  an  allowance  for  special  entertainment, 
this  is  but  meagrely  applied ;  nay,  it  has  been  lately 
stated  with  some  heat  by  the  "  planters'  organ,"  that 
those  who  ought  to  be  the  heads  of  every  amusement, 
as  well  as  of  graver  matters,  are  more  interested  in 
securing  a  competency  for  old  age  than  in  maintain- 
ing the  dignity  of  colonial  office.  I  heard  this  com- 
plaint in  other  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  and  I  fear 
the  representatives  of  her  Majesty  in  some  of  these 
colonies  have  more  reputation  for  thrift  in  their  own 
affairs  than  for  ability  of  administration.  I  have  said 
that  you  find  yourself,  in  Georgetown,  amongst  gentle- 
men— men,  some  of  them  well  born,  some  of  them 
well  educated — full  of  ideas  of  sugar  and  commerce, 
yet  once  of  good  English  or  Scotch  school  and 
university ;  shrewd  capitalists,  but  also  sagacious 
observers  of  public  affairs.  I  was  at  times  almost 
ashamed  to  find  how  much  they  knew  of  English 
contemporary  history.  This  strikes  you  everywhere 
in  the  colonies.  It  is  partly  owing  to  the  many  good 
summaries  of  intelligence  which  the  home  or  colonial 
press  supplies,  and  which  often  descend  to  minute 
details  without  involving  the  perusal  of  indifferent 
reflections  or  reports  ;  but  it  is  chiefly  owing  to  the 
lively  zest  for  information  which  delay  and  dis- 
tance breed  in  PLnglish-loving  hearts.  I  am  almost 
beginning  to  think  that  England  is  far  dearer  to 
exiled  ^iffections  than  to  the  cold  contc'nts  of  home. 

Near  the  club  is  Georgetown  Cathedral ;  that  is,  the 
Anglican  cath(?dral.  The  Roman  Catholics  also  have 
their  cathedral  and  their  bishop.    The  English  cathe- 


28  THE  COOLIE. 

dral  is  built  in  what  I  should  call  the  Creole-Gothic 
style :  a  brick  structure  of  the  original  design  of  a 
West  Indian  barn,  with  spasmodic  innovations  of 
Gothic  in  such  parts  as  the  doors,  windows,  and 
chancel.  In  front  of  the  latter  was  an  extraordinary 
Gothic  iron  skeleton  of  elaborate  workmanship,  which 
constitutes  the  pulpit.  This  skeleton  was  a  substitute 
for  a  more  substantial  oaken  structure  which  stood  for 
some  years,  and  one  day  turned  out  to  have  been  so 
catacombed  by  ants  as  to  promise  no  further  support  to 
the  clergy.  There  are  galleries  on  both  sides,  and  an 
organ  loft  and  choir  at  the  end.  The  choir  looks 
picturesque,  with  its  row  of  surpliced  ebonies,  woolly- 
pated  and  tin-voiced,  but  hearty  withal  in  their  singing 
and  chanting.  One  thing  was  peculiarly  homelike — 
the  marble  memorial  tablets,  with  their  hyperbolic 
eulogies  and  bad  verses.  Besides  the  white  aristo- 
cracy, great  numbers  of  coloured  people  attend,  the 
women  amazingly  gay  in  their  light  muslins,  brilliant 
shawls,  and  fashionable  bonnets,  while  their  hair 
is  cruelly  straightened  and  rolled  into  as  near 
a  resemblance  to  chignons  as  wool  is  capable  of 
assuming. 

The  Presbyterians  are  powerful  in  the  colony.  Be- 
sides the  number  of  Scotchmen  imported,  on  account 
of  the  superior  physique  of  that  race,  to  be  managers 
and  overseers,  there  is  a  Dutch  element,  which 
naturally  attaches  itself  to  Presbyterianism.  The 
State  in  British  Guiana  pays  all  denominations  alike. 
The  colony  is  divided  into  parishes,  and  at  the  time 
of  the  division  each  parish  was  called  upon  to  designate 
its  own  form  of  religion.  Hence  some  parish  churches 
are  Anglican,  and  others  Presbyterian.  The  principal 
Presbyterian  church  of  Georgetown  is  a  commodious 
wooden  building,  rivalling  the  cathedral  in  its  style 
of  architecture  and  appearance.  It  has  a  tolerably 
good  choir,  and  an  organ,  played  by  a  "  Mus.  Doc." 


GEORGETOWN,  DEMERARA.  29 

of  the  United  States,  who  is  also  a  musical  author, 
and  has  composed  an  extraordinary  opera,  entitled 
Martello^  from  which  I  once  heard  him  sing  a 
"  recitative  and  song  of  a  bandit,"  of  such  peculiar 
and  heart-rending  ferocity,  as  to  convince  me  that  his 
very  sweet  playing  in  the  church  was  his  happiest 
occupation.  There  it  was  refreshing  to  sit  in  the 
Administrator-General's  pew,  with  one's  head  cool- 
ing against  a  vast  ornamental  tombstone  behind,  and 
listen  to  the  organ  sounding  finely  in  the  panelled 
auditorium,  while  the  earnest  voices  of  the  people 
rolled  out  that  quaint  old  "  psawm  " — 

"  Praise  God,  from  earth  below, 
Ye  dragons  and  ye  deejjs  : 
Fire,  hail,  clouds,  wind  and  snow, 
Whom  in  command  he  keeps. 
Praise  \e  His  name, 
Hills  great  and  small, 
Trees  low  and  tall, 
Beasts  wild  and  tame,"  &c.  &c. 

I  was  rather  dashed  to  find  that  the  Commissioners 
were  not  sitting.  On  the  contrary,  their  operations 
were  indefinitely  postponed,  and  the  two  gentlemen 
had  taken  advantage  of  a  lucky  expedition  to  the 
interior  to  go  and  view  the  wonderful  Kaiteur  Falls, 
discovered  by  Mr.  Brown.  The  truth  was,  that  the 
planters  were  dissatisfied  with  the  Commissioners. 
They  knew  nothing  of  Sir  George  Young— small  odds 
to  him — and  alleged  they  knew  too  much  about  ]\Ir. 
Charles  jMitchell.  In  fact,  they  thought  the  latter  far 
too  young  and  inexperienced.  ]\Ioreover,  they  had 
doubts  about  his  capacity  for  spoiling !  They  said  so 
plainly  and  appropriately  enough  in  a  deputation  to 
the  Governor,  begging  him  to  communicate  with  Lord 
Granville,  and  ask  for  another  Commissioner;  their 
organ,  the  Colunut^^'ixxOi  so  rudely,  and  with  concomitant 
abuse  of  little  credit  to  anybody  actually  or  impliedly 
a  party  to  it.  So  I  was  destined  to  wait  six  weeks 
for  the  new  Commissioner. 


30  THE  COOLIE. 

Whon,  the  morning  after  my  arrival,  I  slowly 
paced  the  hot  streets  under  shadow  of  my  umbrella, 
I  marked  with  wonder  the  varieties  of  race,  dress, 
aspect,  of  the  people  who  thronged  the  wide  business 
thoroughfare.  With  Saxon,  Teuton,  and  Celt,  in 
their  white  adaptation  of  European  costume,  there 
were  blackest  Africans,  or  tinted  Creoles,  or  brown 
and  copper  Bengalees — the  men's  little  loin-cloths,  or 
babbas,  leaving  unswathed  their  polished  limbs ;  the 
women,  in  slight,  brilliant  costumes,  which  set  off 
their  lithe  figures  and  supple  motions  ;  yellow  China- 
men in  blue  blouse  and  pigtail,  with  half-cunning, 
half-idiotic  faces ;  once  the  short,  staunch,  brown 
figures  of  the  aboriginal  Indians  (the  "  Bucks,''  as 
they  are  called),  come  from  the  interior  to  barter,  the 
men,  for  the  nonce,  assuming  some  elementary  garb 
of  decency,  but  the  women,  with  the  modesty  of  inno- 
cence, absolutely  reduced  to  no  larger  garment  than 
the  primitive  fig-leaf.  Was  it  not  a  surprise  to  see 
such  variety  within  a  mile  of  street  ?  But  I  was  look- 
ing specially  for  my  Coolies,  and  here  they  were. 
Not  a  few  of  them,  well-made,  handsome  fellows, 
stepped  along  with  light  and  vigorous  swing,  some- 
times proudly  sporting  a  shirt,  or  a  white  calico  robe, 
or  even  a  coat  and  trousers.  Of  the  women,  many 
bore  the  evidences  of  wealth.  A  tight-fitting  velvet 
jacket,  blue  or  maroon  colour,  with  a  short  skirt,  and 
round  the  bosom,  and  over  the  head,  in  graceful  fold, 
a  coloured  scarf  or  muslin  veil — and  generally  some 
silver  or  golden  ornaments ;  bangles  on  the  bare 
legs,  bracelets  on  the  brown,  well-turned  arms,  neck- 
lets of  coins,  the  English  florin  being  a  favourite, 
earrings  massive  and  numerous.  I  saw  as  many  as 
half-a-dozen  in  as  many  holes  in  each  ear,  and  nose- 
rings of  gold,  perhaps  enriched  with  a  gem.  Astride 
upon  the  hip,  in  Hindu  fashion,  some  carried  a  black- 
eyed  piece  of  infant  nudity,  also  heavily  laden  with 


GEORGETOWN,  DEMERARA.  31 

silver  baubles.  I  could  not  refrain  from  asking  my- 
self: "Are  these  chains  ?  Can  these  be  the  wretched 
objects  of  avaricious  tyranny,  or  have  I  landed  in  the 
wrong  place  r "  Yet  that  question  did  not  always 
press  upon  me.  For  not  every  one  of  them  appeared 
to  have  been  equally  good-fortuned.  Nay,  many 
carried  little  but  their  dirty  babbas — thin,  obvious 
sons  of  earth-toil,  and  mayhap  of  sorrow  ;  a  few  old 
and  weakening,  a  few  Lazaruses,  with  lameness, 
impotence,  or  ugly  sores  for  dogs  to  lick.  Of  the 
other  immigrants,  the  Chinese  were  usually  broad 
and  even  powerful-looking  men,  not  often  so  indif- 
ferent to  clothing  as  the  Coolies.  Indeed,  of  the 
Chinese  in  Georgetown  streets  a  large  proportion 
were  small  shopkeepers  from  the  country,  busily  driv- 
ing bargains  from  store  to  store.  It  takes  a  Scotch- 
man to  match  John  Chinaman  at  shrewd  barter, — 
I  don't  know  whether  this  was  the  reason  for  the 
number  of  the  Caledonian  ilk  who  served  behind  the 
shop  counters. 

Such,  then,  were  my  clients  as  I  saw  them  the  first 
day  in  the  streets  of  the  capital. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ESTATES — WINDSOR  FOREST. 

FIVE  days  after  my  landing  I  set  out  with  my 
friend,  R.  T.  H.,  to  visit  Windsor  Forest  and 
Haarlem,  two  estates  belonging  to  the  Colonial  Com- 
pany. This  company  owns  a  large  number  of  estates 
in  the  colony,  besides  others  in  Trinidad  and  else- 
where. Little  freshness  has  early  morning  in  De- 
merara :  the  fiery  globe  sends  its  horizontal  beams 
along  the  landscape,  striking-  madly  on  your  face  and 
"  knocking  you  silly,"  as  my  ingenious  friend  the 
ADC.  had  expressed  it  on  board  the  Arno. 

Windsor  Forest  was  over  the  river,  and  some  three 
or  four  miles  down  the  coast.  On  reaching  the  stel- 
ling  we  found  that  the  asthmatic  steamer  which  was 
to  have  ferried  over  ourselves  and  our  "  trap  "  had  been 
obliged  to  knock  off  for  a  few  hours,  and  her  sub- 
stitute— a  still  more  invalid  creature — was  not  yet 
ready,  so  we  whiled  away  the  time  by  ascending  the 
lighthouse,  an  operation  which  was  like  climbing  up 
a  mammoth  red-hot  corkscrew  in  a  chimney  flue.  I 
never  did  it  again.  But  here  we  are  at  the  top, 
looking  far  away  over  the  fiat  country,  and  this 
affords  me  an  opportunity  of  describing  the  general 
face  of  the  field  on  which  the  Coolie  works.  If  the 
reader  will  look  at  the  map,  he  will  see  that  from  the 
far  north-west  on  the  Arabian  (more  properly  Aroe- 


WINDSOR  FOREST. 


33 


D 


34 


THE  COOLIE. 


bisce)  coast  to  the  extreme  south-east,  on  the  river 
Corentyn,  the  shores  and  river-banks  are  fringed  with 
estates  laid  out  in  lines  narrow  and  long.  From  end 
to  end  you  would  be  hard  bestead  to  find  a  hillock, 
and  on  the  east  and  west  coast,  which  I  could  see 
from  the  lighthouse,  the  ocean  was  walled  out  by 
dams.  These,  called  the  front  dams,  constitute  the 
high-roads  to  the  estates.  They  lie  between  the  cul- 
tivation and  the  sea,  and  the  burthen  of  maintaining 
them  in  good  order,  as  public  highways,  lies  upon 
the  adjacent  estates.     The  carking  sea  is  constantly 


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V  '  '.  "niqf  i  LOv-.WATtP  MARK 


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m 

eating  his  way  into  these  huge  works,  so  that  thou- 
sands of  pounds  have  been  spent  by  the  Colonial 
Company  alone  in  resisting  his  encroachments.  As 
there  is  no  stone  within  fifty  miles,  the  roads  are 
topped  with  clay  roughly  burned  into  brick.  On 
either  side  of  the  dam  are  broad  deep  trenches  or 
canals.  Into  these  on  the  land  side,  strike,  at  right 
angles,  the  middle  daws  of  the  estates  with  their  two 


WmDSOR  FOREST.  35 

long  drainage  and  navigation  trenches.  The  rough 
diagram  on  the  previous  page  will  give  some  notion 
of  the  relative  positions. 

The  plantations  vary  in  breadth,  but  I  was  told 
there  were  some  as  narrow  as  two  hundred  rods. 
Their  lines  run  "  back  "  a  prodigious  length — four, 
five,  or  even  six  miles  to  the  Savannah  ;  no  pleasant 
meadow,  but  a  great  watery  swamp,  covered  with  rank 
yet  magnificent  vegetation,  wilds  where  man  rarely 
if  ever  roams,  and  whence  in  the  rainy  season  sweeps 
down  a  deluge  of  brown  bush-water.  Against  this 
incursion  the  cautious  manager  erects  his  back  dam. 
The  intermediate  space  of  the  quadrangle  between 
this  and  the  front  dam  is  crossed  at  regular  intervals 
by  side  trenches,  cutting  the  estate  into  rectangular 
fields  for  the  canes.  These  fields  again  are  subdivided 
by  smaller  trenches  and  drains,  till  the  wonderful 
system  brings  you  at  last  to  a  bed — a  space  nine  feet 
wide  by  thirty-six  feet  long  ;  and  here,  with  the 
drainage  and  drilling  to  make  it  comfortably  dry, 
grows  the  juicy  cause  of  all  this  labour  and  of  the 
Coolie  question  in  Demerara.  It  is  said  that  on  one 
estate  alone  there  are  sixty  miles  of  trench-work.  No 
nation  but  the  Dutch  would  ever  have  attempted  so 
gigantic  a  water-system  on  such  a  mud-bank  as  the 
one  stretched  out  below  me.  This  water-system  pre- 
vails through  the  whole  colony,  and  there  are  many 
abandoned  estates  on  which  you  may  mark  the  re- 
mains of  the  Dutchman's  marvellous  energy  to  this 
day.  One  could  not  help  thinking,  as  one  looked  at 
these  traces  of  the  old  slave  times,  how  many  tears 
and  drops  of  blood  had  flown  down  those  still 
trenches,  carrying  to  the  ocean  the  strength  and 
hopes  of  thousands  of  our  fellow-men.  Now,  how- 
ever, they  are  chiefly  maintained  by  free  labour,  the 
blapks  far  surpassing  the  Coolies  in  the  qualifications 
for  this   heavy   and   dexterous  clay-cutting.     If  we 


36  THE  COOLIE. 

cannot  help  wondering  at  the  Dutch,  neither  can  we 
withhold  the  meed  of  admiration  from  our  British 
fellow-countrymen,  whose  capital  and  energy  are 
freely  spent  in  works  so  costly  and  gigantic.  When 
I  looked  at  the  little  English  community  of  British 
Guiana,  and  compared  its  numbers  with  what  it  was 
doing,  I  had  no  hesitation  in  according  to  them  the 
palm  among  all  the  vigorous  money-makers  I  have 
ever  seen  in  any  quarter  of  the  world. 

But  let  us  look  out  from  the  lantern  a  moment  or 
two  longer.  East,  west,  and  southward  up  the  river- 
banks  we  see  the  tall  chimneys  of  the  sugar-buildings, 
throwing  up  into  the  clear  day  their  jets  of  smoke. 
There  is  Bel-air,  Turkeyen,  La  Penitence,  Ruinveldt, 
Rome,  and  Houston,  and  beyond  the  river  A^'rieden- 
hoop,  and  Versailles,  and  INIalgretout,  the  fine  palm 
avenue  of  Houston  springing  up  into  the  air.  The 
names  of  estates,  it  will  be  seen,  are  international. 
Some  are  romantic.  Bathsheba's  Lust,  Vryheid's  Lust, 
Beterverwagting,  Maria's  Pleasure,  De  Kinderen,  all 
seem  tokens  of  some  quaintness  in  the  namers.  But 
you  should  hear  a  Chinese  try  to  pronounce  some  of 
these  names. 

Descending  the  corkscrew,  we  are  in  half  an  hour 
across  the  river  and  driving  along  the  dam.  After 
passing  one  or  two  abandoned  estates  we  come  to 
a  village,  with  all  the  wretched  characteristics  of 
Negro  habitats  in  this  colony.  Small  wooden  rattle- 
trap sheds  in  a  dirty  yard  or  rank  half-cultivated 
garden,  undrained — a  perfect  morass  in  the  rainy 
weather ;  the  men  and  women  sunning  themselves  on 
any  dry  spot,  the  naked  youngsters  rolling  in  their 
native  mud  ;  and,  most  curious  mark  of  all,  a  white- 
frilled  or  embroidered  petticoat  and  a  muslin  dress 
bleaching  on  some  scraggy  aloe  for  next  Sunday's 
chapel.  Here  and  there  along  the  road  is  a  Portu- 
guese shop,  more  neat  and  clean  than  the  homes  of 


WINDSOR  FOREST.  37 

its  patrons.  Opposite  Ave  see  some  estates'  houses 
for  the  Coolies.  They  look  in  this  instance  bad 
enough.  There  is  a  magistrate  living  within  sight  of 
them,  and  his  hospitable  flag  waves  an  invitation  to 
breakfast,  but  we  cannot  stay.  The  houses  are  all 
old  sheds  of  wood,  and  huts  of  w^attled  palm.  I  was 
repeatedly  assured  that  the  Coolies  preferred  these 
rude  tabernacles  of  their  own  construction,  with  their 
clay  floors,  to  the  best  houses  you  could  build  them. 
In  one  case  I  was  shown  one  built  by  a  Chinese 
during  Sunday,  into  which  he  had  moved  his  family 
from  a  wooden  cottage,  and  from  which  the  manager 
did  not  like  to  evict  him.  The  mud  about  them, 
however,  the  fetid  lines  of  drains,  so  called  because 
the  water  never  runs  out  of  them,  are  not  necessary 
concomitants  of  an  immigrant's  home.  Yet  here  were 
many  lissom,  brown  younglings,  born  and  bred  in 
these  dubious  places,  running  about  naked  in  the 
sun,  or  undergoing  at  their  mother's  hands  the  pro- 
cess of  cerebral  investigation  or  of  anointing  with  oil. 
One  little  bright-eyed  imp,  with  a  solitary  garment 
on — a  silver  dollar  suspended  by  a  string  round  the 
waist — runs  out  and  cries  to  us  "How  dee,  Massa  r" 
Happy  little  Eveling,  who  even  in  these  quarters  is 
as  yet  in  her  garden  of  Eden  ! 

We  are  passing  cane-fields,  and  at  length  turn 
sharp  off  the  road — no  fences  or  gates  here — up  an 
indifferent  avenue  of  tamarinds  ;  seeing  on  the  left 
the  range  of  immigrants'  dwellings  still  called  the 
Negro  yard;  on  the  right  the  overseers' house  and  the 
hospital ;  pulling  up  at  length  opposite  a  garden  bloom- 
ing with  splendid  shrubs  and  flowers,  among  which 
stands  the  broad-galleried  house  of  the  manager. 
Except  the  garden,  everything  on  the  estate  is  rough 
and  ready.  The  bank  and  trench  in  front  of  the  Coolie 
cottages  are  muddy  and  unclean — such  a  state  of 
things  as  you  may  see  in  Ireland  or  the  Highlands  of 


38  THE  COOLIE. 

Scotland,  -v^here  drainage  is  casual — i.e.y  conducted 
by  the  housewife's  arm  straight  out  of  the  door  or 
window.  I  was  not  asked  to  visit  these  houses,  but 
shall  be  able  to  describe  those  of  other  estates. 

Before  breakfast  we  had  time  to  view  fJic  buildings^ 
the  work  in  which  I  must  describe  in  detail.  They 
consist  of  huge  sheds  protecting  the  m.achinery  from 
the  weather.  On  many  estates  they  are  new  and 
well  built,  on  others  antiquated  and  rickety;  but 
hurricanes  never  test  British  Guianian  architecture. 
So  long  as  the  rain  keeps  out,  what  matter  r  We 
cross  the  megass  yard,  at  the  rainy  season  a  stretch 
of  fine  black  mud.  This  stuff  is  a  mixture  of  soil  with 
the  fetid  lees  from  the  rum-still.  A  whiff  from  it 
before  breakfast  tests  your  stomach  sadly.  I  saw 
some  Creole  Africans  digging  in  it  for  the  foundation 
of  a  new  still-room,  and  fairly  ran  away,  wondering 
how  they  could  live  in  the  effluvium  for  ten  minutes. 
To  dispose  of  the  lees  is  a  problem  not  yet  solved  in 
Demerara.  Whether  they  are  useful  as  manure  is  a 
disputed  question  ;  and  the  cost  of  collecting,  storing, 
and  distributing  over  back  lands  would  be  very  great. 
In  one  case,  on  the  estates  of  the  jMessrs.  Ewing,  I 
saw  elaborate  preparations  made  for  distributing  and 
utilizing  them.  I  understood  that  the  experiment 
would  cost  them  nearly;^ 2,000  sterling.  Between  fear 
of  expense  and  laziness,  the  planters  have  generally 
suffered  the  dregs  to  overspread  the  large  yards  of 
their  buildings,  impregnating  the  damp  soil  with 
dangerous  filth,  and  dispensing  sometimes  for  miles 
a  nauseous  stench.  I  was  told  of  an  instance  of  the 
death  of  several  Coolies,  unused  to  the  country, 
through  their  having  been  inadvertently  quartered 
in  a  house  too  near  such  a  yard.  When  I  men- 
tion that  one  of  the  finest  houses  in  the  colony 
— that  at  Houston — has  a  lees  j^ard  to  windward  of 
it,  no  one  can  in  this  regard  suspect  of  malicious 


WINDSOR  FOREST.  39 

cruelty  to  Coolies  persons  who  are  so  cruel  to  them- 
selves. 

Long  ranges  of  open  sheds  at  the  side  of  the  yard 
are  filled  with  what  look  like  dried  shavings,  which 
bare-legged  Coolie  women  and  boys  are  carrying 
swiftly  in  baskets  to  a  row  of  fires,  w^here  men  thrust 
them  in  with  long  iron  feeders.  This  is  megass. 
Entering  the  grinding-room,  we  see  at  once  what 
megass  is,  for  here  is  a  huge  machine  at  work.  From 
the  shed  to  the  adjacent  canal,  on  an  incline,  stretches 
a  covered  way.  A  punt-load  of  canes  fresh  from  the 
fields  is  discharging.  The  canes  vary  in  length  from 
two  to  five  feet,  and  are  one  to  two  inches  in  diameter. 
Coolies  in  the  punt  lay  the  canes  on  a  broad  traveller, 
up  which  they  pass  slowly,  other  Coolies  meanwhile 
picking  out  the  defective  stalks  and  trash.  At  the 
top  they  are  gripped  by  two  iron  rollers,  which  draw 
them  into  their  ponderous  jaws,  and  with  Titanic 
force  squeeze  out  the  juice,  leaving  a  flattened  fibre — 
megass — to  pass  out  beyond.  Coolies  receive  it  in 
large  boxes,  and  wheel  it  away  to  the  megass  logt'e  or 
shed. 

From  the  sides  of  the  machine  runs  out  the  slaty- 
coloured  liquid  into  a  well,  whence  it  is  pumped  up 
to  clarifiers,  which  are  heated  with  steam-pipes. 
Indian  and  Chinese  men,  with  boy  assistants,  all 
reeking  with  the  damp  swelter,  manage  the  clarifiers, 
and  when  they  have  prepared  the  juice,  allow  it  to 
run  down  wooden  troughs  to  the  copper-wall — a 
range  of  brick  furnaces,  thirty  feet  or  more  in  length, 
in  which  are  sunk  huge  iron  hemispheres  called 
"  coppers."  We  ascend  the  stage  and  watch  the 
juice  boiling  violently,  while  the  naked  C^hinese  deftly 
sweep  away  the  scum  with  large  flat  blades  of  wood. 
Hot  work,  my  masters  !  All  this  boiling  is  produced 
by  the  burning  megass,  which  we  saw  the  women 
carrying  just  now. 


40  THE  COOLIE, 

Up  into  the  pitch  of  the  shed  rises  the  shining 
dome  of  Uie  vacuum-pan,  whither  the  syrup  is  pumped 
from  the  copper-wall,  and  where  it  is  boiled  again. 
Re-descending  to  the  floor,  we  find  the  result  in  a 
tank  of  thick  brown  matter.  Take  up  an  inch  on 
your  finger,  you  see  among  the  molasses  the  sugar 
crystals.  Sleek  and  swarthy  Chinamen  fill  their 
wooden  troughs  here,  and  empty  them  into  the  centri- 
fugals—  a  row  of  hollow  drums,  which,  revolving 
rapidly,  drive  the  crystals  to  the  side  of  the  drum  and 
the  molasses  through  its  sieve-like  lining,  until  the 
pure  white  sugar  is  left  there  clinging  to  the  side 
like  a  snow-drift.  Other  workmen  empty  the  drums 
and  convey  the  contents  to  the  sifting-room,  where — ■ 
shall  I  tell  it  ? — I  saw  a  couple  of  naked  fellows  walk- 
ing about  in  the  piled-up  sweetness  as  they  worked 
the  sifter.  Our  sugar  is  now  ready  for  its  huge  hogs- 
heads. I  need  not  follow  the  molasses  to  its  cisterns, 
or  the  dregs  to  the  rum-still.  The  very  sweepings 
of  the  floors  are  made  available.  A  bottle  of  the 
stuff  from  which  fine  rum  is  made,  if  hung  up  along- 
side the  article,  would  preach  a  temperance  sermon 
to  many  a  stomach.  Lastly,  we  visit  the  steam- 
engine  and  boilers,  all  of  best  Scotch  or  English 
make,  the  fires  fed  from  numerous  hogsheads  of  coal 
lying  about  the  yard.  The  Negroes,  and  occasionally 
the  Chinese,  make  good  engineers. 

Altogether  from  sixty  to  eighty  people  may  be  at 
work  in  the  buildings.  It  is  hard  sustained  labour. 
How  many  hours  r  Mr.  Russell,  the  planter  of 
planters,  said  in  his  evidence,  twelve,  fourteen,  six- 
teen hours.  Many  Coolies  afterwards  complained  to 
me  of  long  hours  in  the  buildings — twenty  or  even 
twenty-four,  they  said,  at  a  stretch.  But  the  state- 
ment must  be  taken  subject  to  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  work  done  in  the  buildings  is  done  by  task,  and 
not  paid  for  by  time.      The  gist  of  their  complaint 


WINDSOR  FOREST.  41 

to  me  was  that  they  had  no  extra  pay  for  it.  ]\Ir. 
Russell,  on  the  other  hand,  stated  that  on  his  estates 
they  had.  It  may  be  found  that  a  good  deal  depends 
on  the  pressure  for  "  grinding."  If  the  estate  has 
enough  labourers,  the  gangs  can  be  relieved ;  if  not, 
the  same  people  may  at  times  be  forced  to  go  on. 
Canes  get  sour  if  not  soon  ground  after  cutting,  so 
that  there  is  a  temptation  to  push  to  the  utmost.  I3ut 
let  us  look  at  home.  A  London  printer  told  me  that 
some  of  his  men  worked  forty-eight  and  sixty  hours 
at  a  stretch.  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  a  little 
trades-unionism  brought  to  bear  in  a  legitimate  way 
on  the  permission  of  such  suicides  as  that  would  be 
a  healthy  thing.  To  me  it  is  no  palliation  to  say 
that  the  labourer  is  paid  for  his  extra  work.  You 
cannot  pay  a  man  for  exhausted  tides  of  life,  and 
shorter  years,  and  a  premature  old  age.  Surely, 
whether  it  is  sugar  or  instruction,  mankind  must 
stand  by  and  wait  for  it  while  the  purveyors  take 
their  needed  rest.  Nay,  we  the  public  are  taking 
terrible  lessons  about  this  sort  of  thing  in  the  results 
of  the  long  hours  on  our  railways. 

This  hospital  I  will  not  describe,  as  I  visited  larger 
ones  thereafter.  I  saw  a  few  wretched  invalids,  male 
and  female,  squatting  in  Indian  fashion  on  their 
haunches  in  the  verandah,  and  others  fever-stricken 
on  the  beds.     It  was  airy  and  in  good  order. 

Breakfast !  Anthony  Trollope  was  not  too  enthu- 
siastic about  Demerara  breakfasts — they  are  right 
noble  meals.  My  host  was  a  powerful  Scotchman, 
and  peculiarly  interested  in  the  Commission.  There 
were  Coolies  nursing  nice  grudges  against  him.  Of 
this  I  was  ignorant  as  I  sat  at  the  board  groaning 
with  its  hospitality.  It  required  some  nerv^e  after  a 
meal  like  that  to  go  out  into  the  mid-day  sunshine 
and  get  on  a  stubborn  mule  to  perform  the  feat  tech- 
nically called  "  going  back,"  that  is,  up  the  middle 


42  THE  COOLIE. 

walk  to  the  back  dam  through  the  cultivation.  ISfule 
and  I  established  proper  relations  fortunately ;  for  the 
air  was  that  of  an  oven,  the  glare  that  of  a  furnace. 
I  was  wet  through  in  a  moment  in  the  exercise  of 
mounting,  and  had  not  my  hack  permitted  me  to 
carry  an  umbrella  over  my  head,  would  not,  I  verily 
believe,  have  survived  the  trial. 

Along  the  dam,  three  mules  in  file.  Here  first  are 
Coolies  leading  the  mules  which  drag  the  deeply- 
laden  punts  down  the  canals  to  the  factory.  Their 
babbas  are  toil-stained,  and  their  brown  skins,  dotted 
with  mud,  look  dry  in  the  terrible  heat.  Some  wear 
old  turbans  or  caps,  some  face  the  sun  w4th  no 
covering  but  their  thick  black  hair.  They  salute  us 
gravely  as  we  pass.  The  middle  walk  is  muddy,  full 
of  holes,  with  constant  breaks  for  the  rickety  wooden 

bridges  this  shape  ^ \   over  the  cross  trenches, 

and  encumbered  by  the  rapidly-growing  weeds.  My 
mule  and  umbrella  agree ;  but  I  am  an  undistributed 
middle.  Down  the  trench  comes  a  Coolie  wading  to 
his  breast,  dragging  a  load  of  floating  brushwood  for 
his  home  fire.  The  sun  flames  upon  the  water  and 
glints  over  his  slippery  limbs.  Next  an  Indian 
woman,  choosing  the  same  damp  causeway,  who, 
with  pretty  modesty,  dips  up  to  the  neck  in  the  brown 
water,  and  watches  us  soberly  with  her  great  black 
eyes. 

We  have  been  passing  fields  of  young  cane,  and 
the  light  gangs,  consisting  of  women  and  weakly 
men,  are  weeding  among  them.  I  have  explained 
that  a  bed  is  a  space  about  nine  feet  by  thirty-six. 
Through  this  again  lengthwise  run  shelving  drains, 
dividing  it  into  spaces.  The  canes  are  planted  along 
these  in  what  are  called  cane-holes.  On  one  side  is  a 
clean  bank,  on  the  other  a  trash-bank.  You  may 
take  the  field,  therefore,  to  be  reduced  to  three-feet 
spaces.     Mr.  Russell,  in  his  evidence,  showed  how 


WINDSOR  FOREST.  43 

this  simplified  calculation  for  wages  or  expenses. 
"The  fields  are  always  laid  out  in  three-feet  spaces, 
and  to  those  who  understand  decimals,  it  is  a  nice 
way  of  calculating  work.  There  are  one  hundred 
such  beds  to  an  acre,  so  if  you  pay  one  cent  for  each 
bed,  it  amounts  to  one  dollar  an  acre ;  eight  cents  per 
bed,  to  eight  dollars  an  acre."  The  young  canes  may 
be  two  or  three  feet  high.  The  weeders  hoe  out  the 
weeds  from  the  nine-feet  space,  and  lay  them  on  a 
three-feet  space  adjoining.  Weeds  in  British  Guiana 
are  incredible  plagues — vicious,  pertinacious,  domi- 
neering, Bismarckian,  tolerant  of  no  other  vegetation 
beside  them,  growing  out  and  up  and  over  everything 
with  German  rankness  and  rapidity.  The  work  is  done 
generally  by  the  task.  A  man  or  woman  agrees  with 
the  overseer  to  do  one  or  more  openings  for  a  sum 
certain.  An  opening  is  the  number  of  nine  by  thirty- 
six  feet  spaces  across  the  field — that  is,  twelve  of  those 
beds  taken  in  a  straight  line.  At  this  work,  a  new 
immigrant  working  steadily  might  make,  on  a  good 
estate,  one  shilling  sterling  in  about  six  hours  ;  or 
supposing  him  to  work  from  six  A.M.  till  twelve  noon 
every  day  but  Sunday — and  few  will  do  more  than 
five  days'  work — his  earnings  would  be  six  shillings  a 
week.  But  a  large  proportion  cannot  even  make  that. 
When  we  come  to  consider  the  Immigration  Law 
we  shall  find  that  the  minimum  of  work  required 
from  him  is  five  tasks  of  one  shilling  in  value,  or 
five  shillings'  worth  per  week. 

A  couple  of  miles  back  we  come  across  the  cane- 
cutters.  They  are  the  strongest  Coolies  on  the  estate, 
or  more  frequently  African  Creoles.  They  also  take 
their  work  by  the  opening.  At  each  end  of  the  open- 
ing runs  the  canal,  and  our  cutter  must  pile  his  canes 
on  the  bank  ready  for  the  punts.  Stripped  to  a  rag, 
he  takes  his  cutlass,  a  peculiar  weapon  in  one  piece, 
and  cutting  off  the  cane  near  the  ground,  trims  away 


f4  THE  COOLIE. 

the  long  leaves  and  head.  This  head  forms  the  plant 
or  seedling  to  supply  again  the  fields  from  which  it 
is  cut,  or  new  land  brought  into  cultivation.  The 
leaf-trimmings,  called  trasJi^  are  gathered  up  by  the 
weeding  gang,  and  laid  on  the  bank  alongside  the 
cane-holes.  There  it  dries  and  rots,  and  is  then 
buried  in  the  middle  of  the  trash-bank  as  manure. 
When  he  has  cut  one  hundred  canes,  the  cutter, 
gathering  them  into  a  bundle  weighing  perhaps  a 
hundred  pounds,  carries  them  on  his  head  to  the 
canal.  If  he  is  cutting  in  the  middle  beds,  he  has  to 
cross  and  recross  five  beds,  and  the  intermediate 
drains  to  the  water  and  back  again.  No  wonder  he 
streams  with  the  sweat  of  toil.  At  such  work  as  this 
a  strong  man  may  make,  it  was  said,  two  or  three 
guilders  or  more  a  day.  A  guilder  is  \s.  i\d.  Some 
of  the  Coolies  were  magnificent  men.  Their  tall 
figures,  deep  broad  chests,  and  moulded  limbs,  showed 
that  they,  at  all  events,  could  show  good  fight  to 
want.  Several  had  been  Sepoys  in  India.  A  few  of 
such  men  I  saw  elsewhere  engaged  in  another  opera- 
tion, trench-digging.  The  subsoil  is  like  the  London 
blue  clay.  Digging  out  a  trench  seven  feet  deep  and 
twelve  or  fifteen  wide,  you  see  a  dozen  mud-spattered 
fellows,  with  convex  shovels  like  long  scoops,  having 
handles  six  feet  in  length.  Standing"  firmly  on  his 
feet,  every  muscle  in  tension,  the  labourer  drives  the 
scoop  into  the  clay  by  the  action  of  his  arms  and 
shoulders,  lightly  throwing  it  twenty  feet  or  so  out  of 
the  trench.  Good  hands  are  fond  of  this  work,  and 
earn  a  dollar  a  day  at  it. 

We  went  all  the  way  to  the  back  dam,  tiring  of  the 
endless  rows  of  canes,  albeit  a  splendid  cultivation, 
round  to  Haarlem  estate,  down  its  middle  walk,  and, 
after  seven  miles  of  it,  my  face  and  brain  on  fire,  I 
was  glad  to  get  under  the  cover  of  the  trap,  and  drive 
rapidly  against  the  air. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SCHOON      ORD. 

ON  the  iQth  of  July  I  accompanied  Mr.  Black, 
of  the  firm  of  Samuel  Barber  and  Co.,  to 
visit  Schoon  Ord,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Deme- 
rara  river.  This  is  one  of  the  finest  properties  in  the 
colony.  Crossing  once  more  to  the  Pouderoyen  stel- 
ling,  we  diverged  to  the  left  instead  of  the  right,  driving 
past  other  plantations,  and  through  two  or  three  free- 
hold villages  occupied  by  blacks  and  Portuguese. 
The  contrast  presented  on  opposite  sides  of  the  road 
was  remarkable,  and  is  worthy  the  attention  of  those 
who  make  the  Negro's  cause  specially  their  own.  The 
Portuguese,  mostly  from  Madeira  and  other  islands, 
are  as  acclimatised  as  any  of  white  blood  can  be— so 
much  so  that  they  can  work  in  the  sun,  and  their  little 
children  sustain  its  fiery  rays  bareheaded.  But  the 
Creole  Africans  are  perfectly  acclimatised.  This  is 
the  bcaiL  ideal  of  a  climate  for  them.  In  it  they  thrive, 
are  muscular  and  well-conditioned.  If  there  was  in 
them  any  corresponding  energy,  they  could  of  them- 
selves double  the  production  of  British  Guiana,  aixl 
enhance  their  own  position.  There  must  be  at  least 
seventy  thousand  of  them  distributed  through  the 
colony,  many  living  on  small  freeholds  purchased 
after  the  apprenticeship.  On  these  they  squat,  listless 
about  anything  but  a  full  stomach  and  an  occasional 


46  THE  COOLIE. 

gala  dress,  working,  when  necessity  impels  them  to  it, 
three  days  or  even  less  a  week,  suspicious  always 
about  the  price  of  their  labour.  Wherefore  should 
they  work  ?  The  plantain  and  the  yam  supply  their 
wants  :  with  the  mango  and  various  other  fruits  they 
help  out  their  table,  and  the  trenches  everywhere 
yield  abundance  of  fish.  You  may  find  such  people 
in  the  environs  of  Georgetown ;  but  I  am  referring 
more  particularly  to  the  straggling  villages  in  the 
country.  There  was  such  a  village  on  our  right,  con- 
sisting of  dirty,  tumble-down  structures,  surrounded 
by  rank  vegetation,  around  and  amid  which  we  could 
see  men,  or  women,  or  children,  stretched  in  what 
seemed  to  be  a  perpetual  siesta.  On  our  left  better 
and  brighter  houses,  with  cultivation  about  them,  and 
the  evidences  of  trade  or  thrifty  activity,  marked  the 
homes  of  the  Portuguese.* 

Here  is  Schoon  Ord.  Turning  out  of  the  road,  we 
pass  a  neat  house  pointed  out  as  the  doctor's — for 
this  great  estate  boasts  its  resident  physician.  The 
manager's  house  stands  behind  a  handsome  garden, 
wherein  the  bread-fruit,  lime,  orange,  papau,  banana, 
cocoa-nut  and  cabbage  palms  rise  above  splendid 
shrubs  and  flowers.  We  were  welcomed  by  the 
manager,  Mr.  Arnold,  a  man  hale  and  well  on  in 
life — thirty  years  in  the  colony,  and  only  two  months 
away !  The  capitalist  who  owns  this  estate  had, 
with  great  pluck  and  persistence,  and  spite  of  doubt- 
ful nodding  of  colonial  wiseacres,  expended  on  its 
development  an  immense  sum,  sunk  in  buildings 
and  vacuum-pans,  in  centrifugals,  in  multitubular  and 
Cornish  boilers,  in  tramways,  and  in  Coolie  houses  ; 
but  sunk  to  some  purpose,  for  I  was  told  that  last 
year  the  estate  netted  an  earl's  income.  And  Schoon 
Ord  has  only  1,200  acres  in  cultivation. 

*  In  Appendix  B  there  will  be  found  an  interesting  account  of  the  various 
labour-classes  of  British  Guiana,  extracted  from  the  Commissioners'  Report. 


SCHOON  ORD.  47 

I  did  not  wish  to  "  go  back  "  again  ;  I  had  enough 
of  that  at  Windsor  Forest.  We  went  through  the 
buildings — few,  if  any,  so  large  and  complete  in  every- 
way are  to  be  seen  in  British  Guiana,  and  even  then 
new  machinery  was  being  erected  to  double  the 
manufacturing  power ;  but  I  need  not  describe  again 
the  interior  of  a  sugar-house.  Coming  out  of  the 
factory,  a  surprise  awaited  me.  There  stood  a  long 
line  of  little  children,  of  each  sex  and  every  shade  of 
brown,  from  the  delicate  tint  of  the  IMadrassee  to  the 
ebony  polish  of  the  hill  tribes.  I  looked  at  them 
carefully  as  they  grinned  a  welcome,  nothing  to 
obstruct  a  clear  survey  of  their  figures.  ]\Iost  were 
sleek,  well  formed,  and  many  handsome — the  deli- 
cately-carved nostrils  and  little  pouting  lips,  the 
well-rounded,  finely -proportioned  limbs,  and  the 
healthy  elasticity  of  motion,  suggesting  a  higher 
caste  than  I  knew  them  to  belong  to.  Some  of  the 
smallest  chits  wore  silver  bands  on  wrists  and  ankles, 
or  a  necklet  of  small  coins.  They  called  off  their 
numbers  in  English,  and  then  gave  three  cheers  for 
the  strange  buckra  gentleman.  Thirty  rows  of  teeth 
were  shining  at  once,  and  sixty  small  arms  waving 
lightly  as  they  went  away,  some  of  them  holding  out 
their  hands  and  crying,  "  How  dee,  IMassa?"  The 
sight  did  one  good. 

In  the  middle  of  its  own  field  was  the  hospital. 
When  I  say  field,  do  not  picture  to  yourself  a  grass 
compound,  but  a  surface  of  damp  soil,  not  very  level. 
The  building  resembled  the  other  hospitals  of  the 
colony — as  our  Chinese  artist  has  represented  them  — 
two-storied,  with  wide  galleries  and  open  jalousies, 
allowing  the  air  to  play  freely  through.  The  lower 
ward  was  for  men,  the  upper  for  women.  A  good 
English  barn  with  a  pine  floor  would  give  a  fair 
idea  of  the  interior.  The  beds  were  arranged  in 
rows,  and  were  simply  constructed  of  painted  wood ; 


48  THE  COOLIE. 

the  mattresses  and  pillows  stuffed  with  the  cheap  but 
sweet  and  soft  dried  leaves  of  the  banana.  To  prove 
their  quality,  the  officious  nurse  forced  open  a  pillow 
and  held  it  to  my  nose !  The  latrines  are  placed  at 
the  end  of  a  covered  passage,  but  so  indolent  are  the 
patients  that  it  is  difficult  to  enforce  the  use  of  them. 
The  men  were  lying  or  sitting  listlessly  on  the  beds 
— several  with  ulcers,  often  aggravated  by  the  lazy  or 
filthy  habits  of  the  patient.  The  Hindu  is  not  gene- 
rally strong  in  skin  or  bone.  A  man  who  had  been 
a  temporary  sick-nurse  in  one  of  the  hospitals  told  me 
that  as  an  overseer  he  had  sometimes  given  way  to 
his  wrath  so  far  as  to  knock  down  a  labourer,  but  at 
two  post-mortems  had  an  opportunity  of  comparing  the 
skull  and  ribs  of  a  Negro  and  a  Coolie.  He  was  so 
startled  at  the  difference — at  the  comparative  weak- 
ness of  the  latter — that  he  never  ran  the  risk  of  man- 
slaughter again.  As  in  India,  so  in  Demerara,  a  very 
common  cause  of  death  is  ruptured  spleen,  sometimes 
from  comparatively  slight  shocks  or  excitement.  In- 
stead of  being  an  excuse  for  its  frequent  occurrence, 
this  susceptibility  should  be  rather  a  reason  for  extra 
carefulness  of  treatment.  Slight  abrasions  received 
in  the  field  are  difficult  to  heal  in  an  Indian,  and 
managers  accuse  the  people  of  irritating  their  sores 
in  order  to  escape  work.  On  this  ground  stocks  were 
kept  in  some  of  the  hospitals — not  at  Schoon  Ord 
certainly.  Not  to  speak  without  book,  I  transcribe 
the  evidence  of  the  Medical  Inspector  of  Hospitals, 
Dr.  Shier  : — "  I  have  observed  stocks,  but  not  in  all 
hospitals.  They  were  forbidden  very  recently.  When 
the  present  hospital  system  came  in  force  there  were 
already  hospitals  throughout  the  colony.  They  had 
existed  under  the  old  regime,  and  the  stocks  were  in 
them,  or  at  least  in  many  of  them.  On  the  very  first 
inspection  I  made,  I  discovered  some  of  these  stocks, 
and  the  matter  was  reported  to  the  Executive.     But 


SCHOON  ORD.  49 

on  an  attempt  being  made  to  remove  these  stocks  by 
the  Executive,  some  of  the  medical  men  intimated  to 
the  Governor  that  they  were  essentially  necessary  in 
hospitals  in  the  treatment  of  patients.  The  Governor, 
not  wishing  to  interfere  with  the  medical  men  in  their 
practice,  did  not  order  their  removal,  but  made  it  a 
condition  of  using  them  that  it  should  only  be  done 
by  the  medical  attendant,  and  by  an  order  in  the 
case-book.  I  may  state  that  during  the  years  I  had 
visited  these  estates  I  have  very  seldom  indeed  found 
a  case  in  which  they  had  been  used.  A  case,  how- 
ever, occurred  about  two  years  ago  where  an  overseer 
in  the  absence  of  the  manager,  and  without  authority, 
placed  an  immigrant  in  the  stocks.  The  result  was 
that  the  manager  lost  his  situation.  It  was  on  Plan- 
tation Affiance,  Essequibo.  In  these  stocks  there 
was  something  peculiar.  They  had  never  been  in  the 
hospital  before.  They  had  been  introduced.  I  only 
saw  them  once  in  the  Court  of  Justice.  I  had  never 
seen  them  on  the  estate.  The  apertures  in  the  stocks 
appeared  to  be  more  elevated  than  in  any  I  had  ever 
seen,  and  the  consequence  was  that  unless  the  person 
confined  in  them  had  been  placed  in  a  chair,  it  would 
have  been  almost  impossible  to  put  him  in.  It  was 
not  done  under  pretence  of  treatment — I  believe  by 
way  of  punishment.  The  subject  is  one  which  has 
given  a  very  co7isiderad/d  amount  of  uneasiness  (?)  to  the 
Executive  at  all  times ;  and  on  the  very  last  occasion 
of  its  coming  to  the  notice  of  the  government  they 
were  suppressed  entirely."  The  case  here  referred  to 
occurred  but  a  short  time  previous  to  my  arrival  in 
the  colony.  A  Dr.  Duffey  had  improperly  confined 
in  the  stocks  a  woman  named  Putea ;  and  Dr.  Shier's 
naive  remark  on  this  was,  "  When  this  case  occurred, 
where  a  medical  man  had  actually  applied  them  to  an 
improper  use,  Jiis  Excellency  said  it  tvas  lime  lliey  sliould 
he  feiiwved  I  "     It  is  no  unfair  comment  on  this,  that 


so  THE  COOLIE. 

"his  Excellency"  and  his  Excellency's  predecessor 
were  a  long  time  coming  to  this  conclusion,  after  the 
exhibition  of  the  "something  peculiar"  stocks  of 
Plantation  Affiance  in  a  court  of  justice.  The  Com- 
mission have  made  a  dry  and  caustic  report  on  the 
stocks,  to  which  I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to 
allude. 

A  diet  list  in  English,  Hindu,  and  Chinese  is  hung 
up  in  the  hospital,  designating  certain  scales  of  diet. 
Over  each  bed  the  doctor  chalks  the  prescription  and 
the  diet,  so  that  any  patient  who  can  read  can  check 
the  administration  of  food  and  medicine.  At  Schoon 
Ord,  doubtless,  the  patients  receive  good  rations  ;  but, 
as  our  Chinese  satirist  has  hinted,  there  are  estates 
on  which  that  is  a  moot  question. 

We  next  reach  the  Negro-yard.  To  this  place  I 
always  looked  as  affording  the  most  trustworthy 
indication  of  the  spirit  of  a  manager  towards  his 
workpeople.  Good  houses  and  enforced  cleanliness 
about  them  would  show  that  he  looked  upon  them  as 
brother  beings,  not  as  mere  brutish  hinds.  At 
Schoon  Ord  new  ranges  of  cottages  were  in  course 
of  erection  on  a  plan  suggested  by  Dr.  Shier.  There 
were  rows  of  well-built  wooden  sheds  a  single  story 
high,  each  house  consisting  of  one  room,  which 
reaches  to  the  pitch  of  the  roof.  They  are  set  upon 
clay  floors,  raised  about  a  foot  or  eighteen  inches 
above  the  soil,  to  protect  the  inmates  from  the 
ground-damp.  The  provision  for  ventilation  is  good, 
but  iJiat  the  coloured  races  abhor.  On  the  hottest 
night,  as  I  observed  both  in  Demerara  and  Barba- 
does,  half-a-dozen,  crowding  into  such  a  room,  will 
close  tightly  both  doors  and  shutters.  If,  like  the 
European  houses  of  the  colony,  these  immigrant 
dwellings  are  raised  on  pillars  or  double-storied, 
they  are  rife  with  quarrels  and  dirt.  The  Chinese  will 
utilise  the  under  space  as  a  pig-pen,  or,  taking-  up  a 
board  in  the  floor,  convert  the  under  part  into  a  general 


SCHOON  ORD.  SI 

cesspool.  Or  the  upper-story  people  disturb  the  pla- 
cidity of  their  lower  neighbours  by  presenting  them 
with  uncalled-for  surprises,  either  through  the  cracks 
of  the  floor  or  the  open  windows.  This  led  Dr.  Shier 
to  devise  the  dwellings  I  have  described,  which  are 
now  generally  adopted  wiien  new  ones  are  required, 
but  a  large  number  of  the  old  barracks  still  remain 
throughout  the  colony. 

The  back-roof  of  the  ranges  at  Schoon  Ord  jutted 
out  a  few  feet,  enabling  the  women  to  use  the  shade 
for  kitchen  purposes.  Here  they  had  neatly- moulded 
clay  fire-places  for  their  pots.  Along  the  verandah 
we  could  see  the  women  preparing  their  food — some 
triturating  the  rice,  and  others  boiling  it  in  pots.  I 
stepped  into  one  of  the  rooms — closed  and  dark,  the 
floor  cleaned  with  chunam.  A  dirty  piece  of  calico 
was  hung  up  as  a  screen  to  divide  the  room  into  two 
parts.  The  furniture  is  a  rough  seat,  a  simple  rickety 
bamboo  cot,  a  few  clothes  hanging  against  the  parti- 
tion, some  sticks  and  implements,  a  few  pots,  and  a 
wood  engraving  from  some  penny  weekly,  Mr.  Spur- 
geon,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  or  President  Lincoln 
— I  forget  which,  and  certainly  the  inmates  did  not 
know  or  care.  Not  a  place  you  or  I  would  like  to 
stay  in  long  ;  but  give  the  Coolie  twice  the  money  he 
earns,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  he  would  desire  a  better 
home.  Let  him  have  rice,  a  little  curry,  some  oil  to 
anoint  himself  withal — cover  his  wife  with  silver 
ornaments,  and  dress  her  in  a  gala  dress — invest  his 
own  person,  when  oft'  work,  with  a  clean  white  babba 
and  a  gay  cap  or  muslin  turban,  or,  better  still,  a 
bright  scarlet  uniform  of  some  t'jvtinguished  regiment 
— and  your  Coolie  will  not  thank  you  for  a  furnished 
house.  At  least,  that  was  the  impression  I  gathered. 
It  seemed  to  me  the  Chinese  were  much  more  anxious 
to  have  comfortable  homes,  and  their  ideas  of  living 
were  far  in  advance  of  Indian  notions. 

Along  the  ranges  are  trenches.     In  scarcely  any 


5* 


THE  COOLIE. 


estate  I  visited  were  these  properly  drained  and 
cleaned.  The  unconquerable  flatness  of  the  ground 
presents  great  difficulties;  but  zeal  and  a  single 
Coolie  told  off  to  the  labour  might  keep  the  surround- 
ings of  the  yard  more  neat  and  healthy— would,  I  am 


certain,  save  in  the  better  condition  of  the  people  all 
the  cost  of  the  work. 

Several  of  the  women  were  laden  wath  silver — so 
much  so  as  to  excite  my  wonder  that  it  did  not  im- 
pede their  usefulness.  Three  or  four  rings  of  solid 
silver,  as  thick  as  one's  little  finger,  rattling  round 
their  ankles,  must  have  tried  their  endurance.     Oiie 


SCHOON  ORD,  S3 

rather  handsome  woman  wore  large  bangles,  several 
heavy  armlets,  two  necklets  of  rod  silver,  one  or  two 
more  composed  of  silver  coins,  gold  rings  in  her  ears 
and  nose,  and  several  on  her  fingers ! 

*' Well,  how  dee?" 

"  How  dee,  Massa  r" 

"Very  rich,"  said  the  manager,  at  which  she 
laughed  softly.  She  was  flattered  by  our  examina- 
tion of  her  ornaments. 

"  She  has  a  lot  of  cows,  and  plenty  money  in  the 
savings-bank.     How  many  cow  r" 

She  held  up  seven  fingers. 

"  She  pays  a  man  to  take  care  of  them.  How 
many  dollar  in  bank  V 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders.  She  did  not  care  to 
tell  that. 

I  believe  some  man  lived  with  her  as  her  reputed 
husband,  perhaps  the  cowherd  aforesaid,  but  her 
wealth  was  probably  acquired  at  the  price  of  her 
honour.  Hitherto  not  the  least  serious  defect  in  the 
Coolie  system,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  in  discussing 
it  to  show,  has  been  the  deficiency  of  women.  Efforts 
have  latterly  been  made  to  remedy  this,  and  the  pro- 
portion of  women  to  men  is  now  nearly  forty  per 
cent.* 

There  are  still  at  Schoon  Ord  several  houses  of  the 
old  two-storied  type,  which,  judged  by  a  European 
standard,  would  be  considered  questionably  fit  for 
human  beings.  But  you  may  see  as  bad,  or  worse, 
in  Ireland,  and  some  Scotch  Elighlanders  revel  in  no 
better. 

Round  the  Chinese  quarter  were  attempts  at 
gardening.  Women  were  working  up  the  ground 
with  hearty  good-will.  They  wear  the  blue  cotton 
costume  of  their  country,  and  their  hair  is  as 
elaborately  unnatural  in  its  contortions  as  that  of 
•  10,000  women  to  29,000  is  the  proportion  stated  by  the  Commissioners. 


5+  THE  COOLIE. 

any  English  belle.  •  Under  a  shed  of  one  of  the 
houses  was  a  sturdy  Chinaman,  amusing  himself 
with  the  ladies  of  his  family.  He  was  not  discon- 
certed by  the  manager's  gentle  hint. 

"Ah  !  no  gone  to  work  to-day,  Ching-ching  r" 

"  No.     No  think  work." 

To  complete  the  view  of  this  estate  I  may  add  a 
statement  of  the  numbers  at  work,  and  the  wages 
paid  and  earned  on  it,  placed  at  my  disposal  by  its 
frank  and  able  proprietor  in  London,  to  whom  I  am 
indebted,  not  only  for  much  information,  but  for 
great  kindness  shown  me  by  his  influence  in  British 
Guiana.  He  says — "  The  number  of  indentured  immi- 
grants at  Schoon  Ord  at  the  time  of  your  visit  was — 

Men.  Women.  Children.  Total. 

Indian  Coolies       .         272  116  62  450 

^    Chinese  .     .     .     .         I14  2  2  118 

Africans ....  2  o  o  2 

Total      .     .         388  118  64  570 

"The  numbers  at  work  on  Friday  of  each  of  the 
four  weeks  in  August  were — 

Buildings.  Field.  Hospital.  Off. 

Friday  5th      .         76  450  ig  25 

„       i2th  .        76  439  19  36 

,,       19th   .        70  450  24  26 

„      26th   .        36  456  34  44 

"  The  numbers  of  unindentured  people  at  work, 
Coolies,  Chinese,  Portuguese,  Creoles,  Barbadians, 
&c.,  including  mechanics,  &c.,  porters,  i7i  fact^  all 
classes — 

August  5th 756 

.,  764 

, 780 

759 

'The  totals,  therefore,  at  work  would  be  1,282,  1,279, 
1,300,  1,251.) 
"The  wages  paid  in  the  month  of  August  were 


SCHOON  ORD.  55 

$8,014.61,  or  equal  to  ;^  1,669  i-^-  2^.  Of  this  sum  the 
immigrant  received  about  $2,400,  or  say,/^5oo.  You 
are  aware  that  extensive  works  were  going  on  at  the 
buildings,  so  that  mechanics,  such  as  carpenters, 
engineers,  and  masons,  were  drawing  large  sums 
weekly,  and  in  this  way  the  Coolies  appear  to  earn 
less.  I  find,  however,  that  Mr.  Russell's  evidence  as 
to  the  rough  estimate  of  Coolie  earnings  is  about 
what  we  do  at  Schoon  Ord.  On  the  week  2gth  October 
of  the  present  year  (1870)  the  earnings  amounted  to 
$590.18.  This  sum  divided  by  570  would  give  an 
average  of  $1.04,  or  4^.  4^.  per  week,  which  divided 
by  6  days  would  be  1 7  cents  per  day  for  every  soul  on 
the  estate,  so  that  my  people  are  doing  well.  Mr. 
Russell  says  he  usually  divides  the  total  earnings  of 
the  Coolies  by  the  total  number  of  souls,  and  this  by 
the  number  of  working  days.  If  they  only  earn 
10  cents  they  are  doing  badly;  if  12  cents  they  are 
doing  middling;  if  14  cents  they  are  doing  fairly;  if 
over  that  they  are  doing  well."* 

I  paid  my  next  visit  to  the  handsome  propeilies  of 
Montrose,  Better  Hope,  and  Vryheid's  Lust,  respect- 

•  My  correspondent  apportions  the  earnings  thus  : — 

($590.18  earned  in  one  week  by  515  indentured  immigrants.) 
210  men  averaging  $1.50  per  week     ....     $315 

137  .  »  I-20         , 164.40 

29  in  hospital,  7iil. 

12  absent  on  leave  or  deserting,  nil, 

388  men. 
70  women  averaging  Si 70 

34  ..  So-72 24.48 

6  in  hospital,  nil. 

8  nursing  and  missing,  nil. 

118  women. 

36  girls  and  children  about  buildings,  total     .         16.30 
28  infants,  nil. 

$590.18 


56  THE  COOLIE. 

ing  which  I  need  only  add  a  few  notes.  In  these 
the  resident  attorney  is  employing  his  great  agri- 
cultural skill  in  improving  the  method  of  cultivation 
by  subsoil  drainage  and  steam-ploughing.  Bricks 
and  pipes  are  manufactured  and  burned  on  the 
estate.  As  we  turned  up  the  middle  dam  of  ISIon- 
trose,  the  large  wet  fields  on  either  side,  grass- 
grown  and  partly  overrun  with  low  bush,  seemed 
alive  with  cattle.  These  lands  had  been  invaded  by 
the  sea,  and  were  unfit  for  canes,  so  that  the  pro- 
prietors permitted  the  Coolies  to  pasture  their  cows 
upon  them.  j\Iany  of  them  were  valuable,  and  in 
fine  condition.  The  immigrants  will  pay  eighty  or 
a  hundred  dollars  for  a  cow,  and  tend  it  with  the 
utmost  care.  I  have  seen  an  Indian  woman  dili- 
gently picking  out  the  ticks  from  the  animal's  hair 
with  one  hand,  while  she  softly  smoothed  the  skin 
with  the  other.  The  steam-ploughing  is  done  by  an 
engine  stationed  in  a  punt,  getting  its  fulcrum  from  the 
bank  of  the  canal  on  Avhich  it  floats.  At  the  other 
end  of  the  field  to  be  ploughed  is  a  movable  anchor, 
with  a  steel  pulley,  in  which  works  a  wire  rope. 
This  rope  winds  over  a  drum  in  the  punt,  and  to  it  is 
attached  a  powerful  plough.  As  the  rope  is  wound 
upon  the  drum,  it  pulls  the  shear  through  the  stiff 
clay  soil  with  resistless  force.  A  clever  Negro  alter- 
nately held  the  stilts,  or  rode  on  one  to  balance  the 
machine,  occasionally,  at  an  obstacle,  getting  a 
"  cropper,"  which  seemed  to  give  him  no  trouble. 

As  we  drove  along  the  coast  from  Better  Hope,  we 
passed  a  huge  village.  It  consists  of  a  number  of 
freehold  sheds  built  by  Negroes  and  free  Coolies — 
miserable  places  enough  some  of  them.  Here  are 
four  thousand  inhabitants,  yet  not  half-a-dozen  work 
on  the  adjacent  plantations.  They  either  go  five  or 
six  miles  up  the  coast  to-  show  their  independence  of 
the  neighbouring  managers,  or  do  not  work  at  all : 


SCHOON  ORD.  57 

plantains  and  bread-fruit  grow  at  the  back  of  the 
village  with  little  trouble.  They  love  to  fish  in  the 
morning,  and  lie  with  full  stomachs  watching  the 
slow  wings  of  Time.  There  is  an  Anglican  church 
here,  the  rector  of  which  tries  hard  to  wake  the  people 
from  their  apathy.  Not  long  since,  he  succeeded  in 
getting  a  draining-engine  erected  to  keep  the  village 
free  from  water.  The  koker,  or  sluice-board,  on 
the  shore  gave  way,  and  the  water,  breaking  through 
the  bank,  soon  surrounded  the  houses.  Mr.  McG. 
told  me  that  he  went  down  on  the  morning  after  the 
occurrence,  and  found  a  couple  of  hundred  blacks, 
who  had  been  turned  out  of  their  houses  by  the  flood, 
sitting  on  the  bank  eyeing  the  inundation. 

"  What  you  sit  there  for  ?  Get  up,  and  go  into  the 
trench  and  bank  it  up." 

"  Oh,  massa,  who  pay  us  for  doing  it  ?  Want  dollar 
a  day  for  work  like  dat." 

They  were  unwilling  to  purchase  the  luxury  of 
safety  without  the  additional  incentive  of  wages.  The 
condition  and  characteristics  of  these  people  set  before 
me  a  problem  almost  as  terrible  and  quite  as  insoluble 
as  that  of  the  Irish  peasant. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  AND  GOVERNING 

CLASSES. 

MR.  TROLLOPE'S  description  of  the  govern- 
ment of  British  Guiana  as  a  mild  despotism 
tempered  by  sugar,  would  be  more  correct  if  altered 
to — a  mild  despotism  of  sugar.  Sugar  is  the  ambi- 
tion, means,  and  end  of  nearly  everything  done  in  the 
colony.  It  gives  aim  to  the  energy  of  the  trader, 
animates  the  talent  of  the  lawyer,  prompts  the  re- 
search and  skill  of  the  doctor,  and  sweetens  the 
tongues  as  well  as  the  palates  of  the  clergy.  Little 
else  is  cultivated  for  exportation.  Cotton  and  cacao 
have,  if  any,  only  a  miserable  footing.  There  are 
plantain-grounds  and  cattle-farms  (some  of  the  latter 
very  extensive),  a  few  coffee  and  cocoa-nut  planta- 
tions, and  a  considerable  quantity  of  timber  is  ex- 
ported; but  most  of  the  wealth  and  business  of  the 
country  is  concentrated  in  the  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  sugar  plantations.  In  the  flourishing  slavery 
times  British  Guiana  produced  large  quantities  of 
cotton  and  coffee.  The  return  in  1820  of  cotton  was 
4>536,74i  lbs.,  and  of  coffee  8,673,120  lbs.  Of  cacao 
the  same  year  there  were  1 13,956  lbs.  In  the  appren- 
ticeship years  1835 — 1838  more  than  a  hundred  mil- 
lion pounds  of  sugar  were  produced;  last  year  (1870) 
the  exports  of  the  colony  were — 


GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  59 

Sugar 94.944  hhds. 

Rum 20,716  puncheons. 

Molasses 17,606  casks. 

Timber       153,127  cubic  feet. 

Cotton 103  bales. 

Shingles 6,221,225 

Cocoa-nuts      ....  28,062* 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  sugar  is  the  monopo- 
lizing interest,  and  necessarily  occupies  nearly  all  the 
estates. 

These  plantations  are  owned  and  managed  almost 
entirely  by  Europeans,  and  chiefly  by  men  of  British 
origin.  In  1861  the  population  of  British  Guiana 
was  155,917,  of  whom  1,482  were  natives  of  Europe 
and  147  of  North  America.  Although  there  are  influ- 
ential Creole  Europeans,  I  cannot  be  far  wrong  in  say- 
ing that  in  the  hands  of  a  small  proportion  of  these 
1,629  people,  or  their  equivalent  in  1870,  are  centred 
the  real  power  and  wealth  of  the  colony.  Taking  the 
one  hundred  and  fifty  sugar  plantations,  we  may 
soon  trace  to  a  certainty  the  number  of  persons  in 
whom  that  power  resides. f   There  are  many  absentee 

*  Report  of  the  Commissioners,  &c.,  par.  938 — 941. 

+  The  Commissioners  say  in  their  Report,  par.  269 — 70  :  "  There  are  in 
British  Guiana  at  present  153  sugar  estates,  according  to  the  Directory  of 
1870,  more  or  less  under  cultivation.  Unions  of  two  or  more  of  these, 
under  one  management,  and  with  one  set  of  machinery  and  buildings, 
where  adjacent  estates  have  come  into  the  possession  of  the  same  pro- 
prietors, have  reduced  the  number  practically  to  136.  Of  these  about  20 
are  only  very  {)artially  cultivated,  and  2  or  3  have  but  quite  recently 
resumed  into  cultivation.  Upon  123  sugar  estates  are  there  indentured 
immigrants;  and  also  upon  one  plantain  estate,  making  124  in  all;  and 
there  are  besides  a  few  of  the  half-abandoned  estates  which  are  partially 
worked  with  free  Coolies. 

"About  one-tenth  only  of  the  whole,  that  is  to  say,  14  or  15,  have  the 
proprietor  or  part  proprietor  residing  on  them  and  managing  them.  85 
are  entirely  owned  by  proprietors  not  resident  in  the  colony  ;  the  remaining 
35  or  36  are,  at  least  partially,  owned  by  colonists  who  are  either  merchants, 
estate  attorneys,  or  in  some  cases  managers  of  other  estates.  Among  the 
non-resident  proprietors  the  largest  holder  is  the  Colonial  Company,  with 
nine  large  estates ;  Messrs.  Daniells,  of  Bristol,  also  own  9 ;  and  Messrs. 
James  Ewing  and   Co.,   Messrs.   Sandbach,   Parker,   and  Co.,   Messrs. 


6o  THE  COOLIE. 

proprietors,  British  and  Dutch.  For  them  persons 
act  in  the  colony,  overlooking  and  supplying  the 
estates.  These  persons  are  called  attorneys.  To 
live  upon,  direct,  and  cultivate  each  estate,  a 
manager  is  appointed,  acting  in  some  cases  also  as 
the  attorney.  Under  him  are  generally  from  five  to 
eight  overseers,  who  were  formerly  for  the  most  part 
selected  in  the  colony,  but  are  now  principally  brought 
from  England  or  Scotland.  Under  the  overseers 
are  black  or  Coolie  "  drivers,"  to  take  charge  of  the 
gangs.  We  see  at  once  that,  allowing  the  utmost 
margin,  the  total  of  attorneys,  managers,  and  over- 
seers of  estates  will  not  be  great,  and  the  number  of 
those  of  British  extraction  will  be  even  more  limited. 
On  looking  over  the  list,  it  appears  that  about  240 

Bosanquet,  Curtis,  and  Co.,  and  other  West  Indian  houses,  either  by  them- 
selves or  their  partners  individually,  hold  a  large  portion  of  the  remainder. 
Perhaps  40  out  of  the  85  estates,  owned  entirely  out  of  the  colony,  are  in 
the  hands  of  such  merchants,  and  these  include  nearly  all  the  largest, 
finest,  and  best  cultivated  of  the  whole. 

"  The  extent  to  which  these  same  houses  hold  mortgages  upon  the 
remaining  estates  cannot  of  course  be  guessed  ;  but  the  tendency  of  estates 
in  general  is  evidently  to  f;ill  into  their  hands  ;  and  for  reasons  hereafter  to 
be  explained,  this  process  is  likely  for  the  present  to  continue.  The 
resident  proprietors  have,  moreover,  all  purchased,  not  inherited,  their 
estates  ;  and  since  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  strong  feeling  even 
among  English  owners  in  favour  of  treating  a  sugar  estate  as  a  family 
property,  by  dividing  it  to  a  single  heir,  a  thing,  moreover,  which  could 
not  be  eflected  under  the  Dutch  colonial  law,  except  by  an  application  of 
the  doctrine  of  election  ;  and  since  a  sugar  estate  will  never  bear  partition, 
the  death  of  the  proprietor  is  often  followed  by  a  sale. 

"  In  this  way  most  of  the  old  families  have  disappeared  which  were 
formerly  associated  with  this  place.  Only  one  estate  remains  in  the 
possession  of  a  Dutch  gentleman,  the  single  relic  of  the  times  before  the 
cession  ;  six  or  seven  exhibit  well-known  English  family  names  ;  but  upon 
the  whole  the  aspect  and  future  of  the  tenure  of  land  throughout  the 
colony  is  not  temtorial,  aristocratic,  patriarchal,  or  feudal,  but  simply  and 
exclusively  conmiercial ;  whatever  elements  of  natural  or  artificial  beauty, 
whatever  traces  of  refined  leisure  may  formerly  have  surrounded  the 
planters'  houses,  have  vanished  ;  even  tlie  tropical  luxury  for  whicfi  it  was 
so  famous  has,  to  a  great  extent,  disappeared;  and  in  its  place  utility, 
economy,  and  the  latest  appliances  of  scientific  fanning  and  manufacture 
now  constitute  the  chief  future  of  a  thriving  sugar  estate." 


GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  6i 

firms  and  individuals  are  either  owners,  attorneys,  or 
managers  of  all  the  estates  in  the  colony.  Of  the 
estates,  io6  or  thereabouts  are  under  the  care  of  35 
attorneys.  Some  of  the  attorneys  have  an  enormous 
responsibility.     I  find,  for  instance — 

Mr.  James  Stuart,' attorney  or  co-attorney  of  .     .     13  estates. 
Mr.  McCalman    \                                           nf  ■71 

"  Colonial  Co."  J  "  „  oi  .     .     21       „ 

Mr.  Gamett  ,,  ,,  of  ,     ,     21       „ 

Mr.  Russell — 

— but  Mr.  Russell  shall  describe  himself  on  oath. 

Question  by  the  Commissioners :  You  are  the 
manager  of  Leonora,  with  other  adjoining  estates  ? 

^ .  I  do  not  know  whether  you  can  call  me  manager. 
I  have  charge  of  those  estates,  but  I  have  managers 
under  me  with  full  salaries. 

Q.  You  are  also  attorney  for  several  estates,  are 
you  not  ? 

A.  I  am. 

Q.  Do  you  consider  yourself  as  attorney  for  Leo- 
nora ? 

A.  I  am. 

Q.  What  are  the  duties  of  attorneys  r 

A.  The  duties  of  an  attorney  are  to  pay  periodical 
visits  to  the  estates,  to  inspect  the  cultivation  and 
manufacturing  departments,  and  in  town  to  examine 
all  the  weekly  reports  coming  in  from  the  estates. 

Q.  Does  the  attorney  appoint  the  officers  on  the 
estates  ? 

A.  He  appoints  the  manager,  but  generally  the 
manager  appoints  his  own  overseers.  I  may  men- 
tion that  on  the  Colonial  Company's  estates  a  great 
many  young  men  are  sent  out  indentured  from  home, 
and  they  are  placed  on  the  estates  either  by  myself 
or  by  my  co- attorneys. 

Q.  You  are  one  of  the  attorneys  for  the  Colonial 
Company's  estates  ? 


62  THE  COOLIE. 

A.  I  am. 

Q.  What  are  the  estates  for  which  you  are  attor- 
ney ? 

A.  AVell,  to  begin  with,  Hampton  Court,  on  the 
Arabian  coast.  I  am  at  present  also  acting  for  Anna 
Regina  as  planting  attorney.  I  then  come  across  to 
the  west  coast,  where  I  am  attorney  and  part  pro- 
prietor of  Plantation  Tuschen  de  Vrienden.  The 
next  estate  on  the  west  coast  of  which  I  am  attorney 
is  Plantation  De  AVillem  ;  then  Zeeburg,  Leonora, 
and  Anna  Catherina.  They  are  combined  in  one 
estate.  You  may  call  it  one  very  large  estate,  making 
about  3,000  hogsheads  of  sugar,  where  my  residence 
is.  I  have  two  managers,  and  each  receives  a  salary 
of  2,000  dollars  per  year  to  conduct  the  field  work 
and  manufacturing  department. 

Q.  Are  these  all  ? 

A.  The  next  estate  is  Windsor  Forest,  on  the  same 
coast,  and  Haarlem.  These  two  estates  join  each 
other  ;  you  may  almost  call  them  one ;  they  soon  will 
be  one  combined  estate.  We  then  go  up  the  river  to 
Plantation  Farm  and  Peter's  Hall,  on  the  east  bank 
of  Demerara  river;  then  to  Plantation  Success,  on 
the  east  coast,  and  La  Bonne  Intention ;  of  that 
estate  also  I  am  part  proprietor.  That  embraces  my 
duties  in  Demerara  and  Essequibo.  I  pay  two  half- 
yearly  visits,  and  oftener  if  I  can  find  time,  to  the 
Colonial  Company's  estate  in  Berbice,  which  consists 
of  Plantations  Friends,  Mara,  and  Ma  Retraite,  on 
the  Berbice  river,  and  Plantation  Albion,  on  the 
Corentyn  coast.  I  also  inspect  a  mortgaged  estate, 
Goldstone  Hall,  on  the  Canje  Creek,  and  I  have  paid 
one  visit  to  an  estate  which  is  slightly  indebted  to  the 
agency  of  the  company  here,  called  Waterloo,  in 
Leguan.     Those  are  all. 

Q'  How  long  have  you  been  in  the  country  ? 

A.  I  have  been  in  active  service  here  ever  since 


GOVERNMENT^  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  63 

1847,  with  the  exception  of  a  visit  of  six  months 
Avhich  I  paid  to  my  native  country  in  1865,  two 
months  in  1868,  and  two  months  in  1869,  when  I 
travelled  through  the  West  Indian  Islands. 

Q.  All  that  time  you  have  been  employed  upon 
estates  ? 

A.  Yes,  I  commenced  my  career  on  Plantation 
Friends,  on  the  Berbice  river;  and  from  there  I 
went  to  Plantation  Diamond,  on  the  Demerara  river. 

Q.  As  what  ? 

A.  As  an  overseer.  I  commenced  as  an  overseer, 
that  is  to  say,  I  commenced  my  career  here  as  an 
overseer.     I  had  done  something  before  I  came  here. 

Q.  And  from  that  you  have  risen  to  the  important 
situations  you  now  hold  ? 

A.  Yes,  if  they  may  be  considered  so. 

One  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  colony,  Mr.  Russell's 
talent  and  energy  have  made  him  a  very  sugar-king. 

It  appears  that  there  are,  in  round  numbers,  about 
one  hundred  managers  who  are  not  proprietors,  and 
about  thirty-six  proprietors  who  are  neither  managers 
nor  attorneys.  At  the  extreme  I  take  it,  then,  that 
35  -|-  loo  -f  25  =  160  people  and  firms  on  the  spot 
may  be  said  practically — though  there  are  some 
wealthy  men  of  business  not  bound  up  with  sugar — 
to  have  the  interests  of  the  colony  in  their  own 
hands,  to  be  the  main  employers  of  labour,  the  main 
patrons  of  the  professions ;  and  that  of  these  the 
thirty-five  attorneys  and  a  few  proprietors  constitute 
a  kind  of  local  aristocracy,  with  the  monopoly  of 
social  and  political  power. 

To  this  state  of  things  an  important  balance  theo- 
retically exists  in  the  peculiar  form  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  Governor,  as  her  Majesty's  representative, 
is  the  embodiment  of  executive  power.  The  legis- 
lature, called  the  Court  of  Policy,  consists  of  ten 
persons.      Five    are    government    ofticials,   namely, 


64  THE  COOLIE. 

the  Governor,  the  Attorney-General,  the  Government 
Secretary,  the  Receiver-General,  and  the  Auditor- 
General.  To  procure  the  other  five,  resort  is  had  to 
a  College  of  Electors.  This  is  a  relic  of  Dutch  times, 
the  College  of  "  Keysers,"  and  consists  of  seven 
persons  elected  for  life  by  a  constituency  qualified 
by  property.  This  qualification  is  an  annual  income 
of  /^i25.  Persons  of  every  nationality  and  pursuit 
are  included  in  the  constituency.  The  total  number 
of  voters  in  1865  was  907.  Upon  a  vacancy  in  the 
legislature,  the  College  of  Electors  send  up  two 
names  to  that  court,  which  thereupon  selects  one  to 
fill  the  post.  The  Court  of  Policy  sits  sometimes 
publicly,  but  may  and  does  hold  secret  sessions. 

Is  it  possible  for  one  gravely  to  criticise  such  a  legis- 
lature as  this — governing  155,000  persons?  It  takes 
one's  liberal  breath  away  !  Even  the  limited  cream 
of  popular  representation  is  filtered  through  that 
colander  with  seven  holes,  the  College  of  Electors 
for  life ! 

Theoretically,  I  say,  the  Executive  has  a  heavy 
balance  against  the  five  elected  members  in  its 
influence  over  its  own  nominees,  the  official  mem- 
bers. But  of  these  some  may — as  I  conceive,  most 
improperly — be  attorneys  or  planters,  as  is  the  case 
with  the  present  Auditor-General.  Without  any  im- 
putation that  the  power  thus  concentrated  into  the 
hands  of  one  interest  is  actually  abused,  an  impartial 
spectator  is  apt  to  conclude  that  a  legislature  so 
framed  will  be  a  subject  of  much  suspicion.  This, 
although  men,  not  of  the  planting  interest,  have  been 
and  are  members  of  the  legislature.  The  least  pos- 
sible reflection  against  it  is  a  very  strong  one,  namely, 
that  in  the  main  it  will  only  represent  and  discuss 
one  side  of  all  public  questions.  Its  most  well-meant 
paternal  kindnesses  may  be  misapprehended  by  the 
objects  of  them.      Thus   I  found  in  Demerara  evi- 


GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  65 

dences  of  a  strong  under-current  against  the  planting 
influence.  Persons  of  all  classes,  professions,  and 
hues,  when  they  could  speak  to  me  confidentially, 
expressed  a  dissatisfied  feeling  on  the  relative 
strength  of  the  sugar  party  and  the  popular  ele- 
ment. In  the  case  of  the  Portuguese,  numbering 
some  25,000,  and  the  aboriginal  Indians,  this  took 
the  form  of  strong  representations  to  me  upon  the 
injustice  of  the  legislation  and  the  imperfect  ad- 
ministration of  the  laws. 

This  brings  me  to  an  important  question  already 
foreshadowed.  The  counter-check  to  the  dominance 
of  sugar  on  behalf  of  all  other  interests — including 
that  of  the  Coolie — is  the  Governor.  His  responsibility 
is  enormous.  He  is  a  modified  little  autocrat  in 
power — if  he  chooses  or  dares  to  use  it.  If  he  does 
not  use  it,  he  may  be  simply  a  tool.  If  he  abuses  it, 
he  is  a  dangerous  weapon.  Probably  the  same  may 
to  some  degree  be  said  of  most  of  our  West  Indian 
colonies.  At  all  events,  in  British  Guiana  the  quality 
of  the  Executive  is  a  matter  of  immense  moment,  as 
well  to  the  energetic  and  wealthy  planters  as  to  the 
vast  community  of  powerless  and  unrepresented  races. 
Hence  the  responsibility  thrown  on  the  Home  Colonial 
Minister  of  selecting  her  Majesty's  representative  is 
very  grave.  A  Governor  ought  to  be  a  man  of  ripe 
experience,  of  high  social  and  intellectual  position, 
and  of  very  firm  character.  He  should  be  strong 
enough  to  have  the  full  confidence  of  the  Colonial 
Office,  and  to  hold  his  own  against  a  whole  com- 
munity on  any  point  of  policy,  while  sufficiently 
liberal  and  genial  in  his  tastes  to  assume  the  leader- 
ship of  society.  A  man  who  does  this  will  more  than 
.any  other  be  appreciated  even  by  the  planters  them- 
selves. The  post  in  British  Guiana  is  a  good  one. 
The  salary  is /^5, 000  sterling  a  year,  with  perquisites, 
and  a  very  handsome  sum  for  "  entertainments."    Are 

F 


66  THE  COOLIE. 

there  no  talented  peers,  no  junior  statesmen,  no  retired 
judges,  no  experienced  and  able  military  officers, 
willing  to  accept  such  a  position  for  live  years  ? — and 
why  should  such  important  governments  as  some  of 
those  in  the  AVest  Indies  be  confided  to  political 
adventurers  or  dried  officials  ?  The  British  Guianians, 
as  one  of  the  richest  and  most  enterprising  communities 
attached  to  the  Crown,  are  entitled  to  ask  this  ques- 
tion, and  to  have  a  specific  reply.  How,  for  instance, 
came  Mr.  Francis  Hincks,  a  Canadian  politician,  of 
whose  political  career  it  were  better  not  to  venture  on 
a  retrospect,  to  be  appointed  Governor  of  Barbadoes, 
and  then  of  British  Guiana  ?  An  able,  astute,  schem- 
ing, uncompromising,  terribly  energetic  Scotch-Irish- 
man from  the  dangerous  neighbourhood  of  Belfast, 
endued  with  semi-absolute  power,  and  incontinently 
pitched  into  a  community  like  that  of  British  Guiana, 
could  scarcely  fail  to  produce  a  pyrotechnic  com- 
motion in  the  blaze  and  sparkle  of  which  fingers 
would  be  burned,  and  perhaps  some  persons  totally 
annihilated.  Again,  what  a  commentary  on  the  past 
administration  of  colonial  affairs  is  the  fact  that  in 
one  case  an  appointment  to  the  post  of  Governor  was 
made  by  a  pure  mistake  of  the  noble  Duke  then 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  !  The  interest  of 
these  colonies,  and  of  the  empire,  demands  that  more 
serious  attention  should  be  given  to  the  quality  of 
their  Governors.  It  is  an  insult  to  them,  as  it  is 
a  wrong  to  ourselves,  to  burthen  them  with  the  expense 
of  an  inefficient  Executive.  I  careffilly  guard  myself 
from  being  supposed  to  reflect  on  appointments  to 
our  greater  colonies. 

How  much  springs  from  ignorant  or  indifferent 
administration  of  our  colonial  affairs !  What  blunders, 
what  misunderstandings,  what  bitterness,  what  wrongs 
have  disturbed  nearly  every  colony  of  the  British 
Crown  under  our  present  system !     Even  in  George- 


GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  67 

town  I  heard  the  threat  from  a  high  official  that  the 
United  States  would  be  their  refuge  from  the  impolicy 
— not  of  Britain  and  her  people,  their  hearts  are  true 
I  would  fain  believe — but  of  our  administrators. 

An  instance  of  legislative  pliability  is  included 
in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioners  :* — *'  An  odd 
clause  in  a  recent  ordinance  attracted  our  notice, 
to  the  effect  that  any  charge  under  the  Immigra- 
tion Ordinances  might  be  laid  before  any  stipen- 
diary justice  of  the  peace  in  the  colony.  That 
is  to  say,  apparently,  if  a  manager  objected  to 
have  his  cause  tried  by  any  particular  magistrate, 
he  might  carry  his  immigrant  elsewhere.  After 
this  provision  had  a  good  deal  perplexed  us,  and 
caused  us  to  ask  questions  of  the  magistrates  as  to 
its  working,  without  finding  that  it  was  even  put  in 
practice,  its  history  was  volunteered  by  the  Solicitor- 
General.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  piece  of  hand-to- 
mouth  legislation.  An  influential  manager  had  hap- 
pened to  lay  his  charge  against  a  deserter  in  the 
wrong  court,  and  was  cast  accordingly.  A  clause  was 
thereupon  in  hot  haste  stuck  [stc!)  into  the  Immigra- 
tion Ordinance  then  before  the  legislature,  to  guard 
suitors  against  the  effects  of  their  own  carelessness, 
by  the  help  of  a  device  which  might  have  worked  the 
most  intolerable  oppressions.  Even  within  the  limits 
of  a  magistrate's  regular  work  great  hardship,  may  be 
inflicted  upon  the  labouring  man,  by  postponements 
or  adjournments,  if  he  has  to  come  far ;  but  to  carry 
the  case  against  him  into  another  district  would  be 
nothing  short  of  tyranny.  We  are  given  to  under- 
stand that  the  clause  has  never  been  acted  on,  and 
earnestly  hope  it  never  may  be." 

The  Commissioners  have  failed  to  animadvert  on  the 
state  of  official  morality  in  the  society  where  such  an 
incident  could  occur.  The  accident  of  a  disappoint- 
*  n  225,  p.  67. 


68  THE  COOLIE. 

ment  to  an  "  influential "  manager  in  pursuing  his 
ordinary  remedy  in  a  court  of  justice  leads  to  the 
sticking  in  hot  haste  into  an  ordinance  then  passing 
the  legislature  of  a  clause,  regardless  of  justice  and 
capable  of  working  "  intolerable  oppressions."  This 
must  have  been  done  by  concert  in  the  Court  of 
Policy.  The  persons  who  did  it  were  few  in  number, 
but  they  must  have  embraced  some  at  least  of  the 
government  officials  in  the  legislature.  The  Governor 
cannot  exonerate  himself  from  at  least  inadvertence 
in  permitting  legislation  to  occur  on  so  light  and 
one-sided  a  pretext.  AVhere  was  the  Attorney- 
General,  bound  to  look  equally  after  the  interests 
of  all  classes  as  her  Majesty's  servant,  and  the 
proper  person  to  intervene  to  prevent  such  a  legis- 
lative scandal  ? 

In  alluding  hereafter  to  the  office  of  Immigration 
Agent-General,  I  shall  have  occasion  to  show  how  a 
former  Governor  assumed  the  power  to  make  an  order 
which  virtually  repealed  a  proviso  in  an  existing 
ordinance.  By  a  stroke  of  his  pen  he  thus  seriously 
modified  the  functions  of  a  high  official,  and  changed 
the  relations  of  the  whole  immigrant  class  to  the 
courts  of  justice.  Had  this  order  been  of  an  opposite 
character,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  would 
not  long  have  stood ;  but  as  it  ran  current  with 
the  wishes  of  the  governing  class,  it  seems  to  have 
met  with  no  protest  except  from  the  individual  chiefly 
concerned.  These  cases  are  indicative  of  the  effects 
of  a  preponderating  influence  unchecked  by  a  firm 
Executive.  Not  one  of  them  could  have  occurred  had 
the  Governor  taken  a  firm  stand  against  them.  The 
shrewdest  of  the  planter  class  themselves  would 
admit  that  a  continuance  or  extension  of  such 
anomalous  proceedings  would  in  the  end  lead  to  evils 
as  injurious  to  themselves  as  they  are  now  injurious 
to  others,  and  it  was  no  small  satisfaction  to  me  to 


GOVERNMENT^  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  69 

hear  them  expressing"  a  strong  desire  that  the  head  of 
the  Executive  should  be  a  man  of  great  nerve  and 
firmness. 

One  other  peculiarity  of  the  Guianian  Government 
remains  to  be  noticed.  In  all  financial  matters  the 
Court  of  Policy  is  assisted  by  the  College  of  Plnancial 
Representatives,  numbering  six,  elected  in  the  same 
way  as  the  keysers,*  and  holding  office  for  two  years. 
Thus  the  Combined  Court,  consisting  of  sixteen 
members,  has  the  important  control  of  the  revenue 
and  taxation.  The  financial  court  being  so  consti- 
tuted, we  turn  with  some  curiosity  to  ascertain  how 
the  revenue  is  raised.  The  question  is  the  more  vital 
because  the  expense  of  immigration  lies  not  alone  on 
the  planters,  but  is  shared  by  the  whole  community. 
Of  the  cost  of  the  system,  roughly  speaking,  one-third 
is  paid  by  the  government,  and  two-thirds  by  the 
planter,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  his  indentures. 
That  one-third,  however,  does  not  represent  the  whole 
charge  upon  the  community.  The  salary  of  the 
INIedical  Inspector  of  Hospitals,  the  cost  of  district 
gaols  expressly  erected  and  maintained  for  Coolies, 
and  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  police  expenses, 
must  in  fairness  be  attributed  to  immigration.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Commissioners  these  items  alone 
amount  since  1859  to  •^65,985,  the  dollar  being  ^s.  2d. 
The  ground  on  which  the  general  community  is  asked 
to  contribute  to  these  expenses  is  that  it  is  every  way 
benefited  by  the  results  of  the  importation  of  labour. 
Yet  a  lazy  Negro  who  lived  contentedly  under  his 
own  pumpkin-vine  and  papau-troe  might  well  ques- 
tion his  interest  in  the  introduction  of  these  formidable 
competitors  ! 

To  the  subordinate  community  generally,  the  taxa- 
tion most  important  is,  of  course,  that  of  food.     How 

*  The  total  number  of  cleclcjis  in  the  colony  in  1S65  was  yoj.  (Bennett's 
Guiana,  p.  7.) 


70 


THE  COOLIE. 


is  food  taxed  in  British  Guiana  ? 
from  the  tariff. 


I  take  my  answer 


Bread,  biscuit,  &c.,  per  lOO  lbs,     •    •    •    t  2 

Cornmeal  and  oatmeal^ i 

Dried  fish 2 

Wheat  flour,  per  barrel  {196  lbs.)  .     ...  4 

Rice,  per  100  lbs .     .  i 

Pork,  per  brl.  200  lbs 12 


d. 
I    stg 


This  is  a  direct  and  heavy  impost  on  the  food  con- 
sumers. It  is  due  to  truth  to  say  that  these  are  little, 
if  at  all,  above  the  duties  on  the  same  articles  in  other 
West  Indian  colonies.*  What  of  the  planters'  im- 
portations ? 

s.    d. 
Coals,  per  hogshead     .....     i     o  stg. 

,,         ton 16,, 

Lime,  per  pun i     o\  „ 

Sugar  exported  pays  no  duty;  and  the  following 
things  are  exempt  from  taxation  : — 

Machinery  employed  in  mining  or  in  the  manufacture  of  raw  materials 

of  the  colony. 
Manures. 
Steam  draining  engines  and  steam  ploughs. 


*  From  pnces  current  kindly  forwarded  to  me  by  Air.  Barr,  the  duties 
in  December,  1870,  in  other  places  were  as  follows  : — 

Flour.           Fish.  Rice.  Pork. 

per  bushel,  per  100  lbs.  per  100  lbs.  per  barrel. 

Jamaica    .          8.0                  3.6  3.0  15.0 

Barbadoes             3.6                    0.2  0.5  8.4 

Trinidad    .            5.0                    I.O  2.0  S.4 

Demerara .           4.2                   2.1  2. 1  12. 6 

It  has  also  been  pointed  out  to  me  that  on  the  principle  of  ad  valorem 
duty,  the  planter  pays  relatively  as  high  as  the  ordinary  consumer.  "  A 
barrel  of  flour  in  Baltimore  is  worth  s6 — duty  §1,  or  16  per  cent,  on  cost. 
A  ton  of  coal  costs  §6.6— duty  \s.  (jd.,  or  22  per  cent.  Contents  of  a 
puncheon  of  lime  is  value  for  "js. — duty  \s.  \\d.,  or  15  per  cent."  These 
must  be  very  favourable  purchases,  however,  for  the  planter,  and  cannot  be 
accepted  as  an  average  of  value.  And  whatever  may  be  said  as  to  the 
ad  valorem  duties,  the  unequal  incidence  of  the  weight  of  taxation  is  plain 
enough. 


GOVERNMENT,  GOVERNORS,  ETC.  71 

The  Combined  Court  exercises  for  the  colony  in 
its  present  condition  a  power  over  the  salaries  of 
officials,  which  appears  to  need  in  some  instances  a 
modification.  Some  at  least  of  the  latter,  especially 
those  appointed  from  England,  should  be  assured  an 
inflexible  salary  by  the  Colonial  ]\Iinister.  It  is  evi- 
dently unfair  that  work  to  be  done  by  persons  repre- 
senting the  authority  of  the  Home  Government,  as 
well  as  engaged  in  the  interests  of  the  colony,  should 
be  exposed  to  the  vacillating  antipathies  or  partialities 
of  the  local  powers.  To  this  must  be  added  the  fact 
that  the  possibility  of  such  a  danger  may  affect  the 
balance  even  of  an  independent  mind. 

I  have  spoken  with  great  freedom  on  the  constitution 
and  society  of  British  Guiana  as  it  appeared  to  my 
wondering  eyes;  in  duty  bound  nothing  to  extenuate, 
as  by  gratitude  urged  to  set  down  nought  in  malice. 
It  is  plain  that  in  the  colony  itself  there  are  many 
men  of  liberal  opinions  who  would  be  glad  to  assist 
in  freeing  their  political  constitution,  could  they  see 
their  way  to  placing  any  confidence  in  the  Creole 
Africans.  The  failure  of  the  experiment  of  free 
government  in  Jamaica  is  a  signal  instance  in  favour 
of  continuing  the  present  constitution  ;  but  there  are 
differences  in  the  conditions  of  the  two  colonies, 
which  need  to  be  taken  into  account.  British  Guiana 
is  wealthier,  more  full  of  energy,  and  perhaps  of 
intelligence.  It  ought  to  be  able  to  show  consider- 
able progress  in  the  education  of  the  blacks.  More- 
over, it  has  a  great  community  of  Portuguese  now 
permanently  absorbed  in  it.  These  people  are  in 
the  anomalous  position  of  foreign  subjects,  and,  with 
very  rare  exceptions,  have  no  representation  even 
in  the  constituency.  Yet  they  seem  to  be  well 
qualified  to  take  some  part  in  the  government;  and, 
indeed,  declare  themselves  at  present  to  be  suffering 
from  the   effects  of  class   legislation.      It  would  be 


72  THE  COOLIE. 

well  if  by  some  arrangement  these  admirable  citizens 
— or  some  portion  of  them — now  constituting,  as  they 
do,  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  shopkeeping  community, 
could  be  brought  within  the  privileges  of  British- 
Guianian  free-citizenship,  and  be  called  upon  to  share 
its  burthens.  They  would  constitute  a  compact  body 
of  conserv'ative  defence  against  any  tendencies  to 
outbreak  among  the  labouring  classes,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  their  numbers  and  property  would  form 
a  barrier  to  the  unconscious  or  attempted  domination 
of  a  higher  class.  This,  I  venture  to  suggest,  with 
a  limited  addition  to  the  constituency  of  blacks  or 
coloured  people, — whose  qualifications  might  be 
required  to  be  both  of  property  and  education, — while 
establishing  society  on  a  broader,  would  also  place 
it  on  a  safer  basis.  Classes  and  race  jealousies,  sure 
to  arise  in  such  circumstances  as  those  that  now  exist, 
would  be  removed,  and  the  educational  effect  on  the 
people  themselves  would  be  of  the  highest  value.  At 
all  events,  it  is  clear  that  some  power  must  be  erected 
in  the  colony  to  cope  with  the  preponderating  force 
of  the  planters,  the  possession  of  which  is  an  in- 
sensible yet  powerful  temptation  to  them.  In  offer- 
ing these  criticisms  I  am  not  writing  against  them,  but 
in  the  general  interest  of  colonial  well-being  and 
good  government. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ESTATES,   MANAGEMENT,   STAFF,  AND  EXPENSES. 

I  HAVE  already  referred  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  sugar  estates  of  British  Guiana  are  owned — 
that  is,  some  by  resident  proprietors,  others  by 
absentees.  The  absentees  are  represented  by  local 
agents,  named  attorneys,  who  are  generally  not  only 
the  guardians  of  the  estate's  progress,  but  also  its 
principal  merchants  both  ways — selling  its  produce 
and  providing  its  supplies.  Moreover,  they  are  not 
infrequently  the  mortgagees.* 

The  attorney  holds  the  proxies  for  his  proprietor, 
and  votes  on  his  behalf  in  the  various  elections. 
Hence  my  deductions  in  the  last  chapter  as  to  the 
governing  class  are  not  without  great  significance  to 
the  Coolie  and  every  other  class  in  the  colony.  For 
to  these  attorneys  the  next  class  of  the  community — 
omitting  for  the  present  the  professions — is  wholly 
subject ;  that  is,  the  class  of  estate  managers.  Every 
plantation  has  its  manager — a  man  with  grave  re- 
sponsibilities, as  he  must  of  necessity,  for  the  interest 
of  his  employer,  be  a  man  of  varied  abilities  and 
experience.  The  Commissioners  have  admirably 
summed  up  the  duties  of  this  office.f  "  He  is  of 
course  a  practical  planter,  whether  he  first  came  out 

*  Report  of  the  Commissioners,  H  270.    Ante,  note,  pp.  60,  61, 
t  Report,  H  271,  272. 


74  THE  COOLIE. 

under  indenture  from  Scotland  as  an  overseer,  or 
migrated  to  better  himself  from  Barbadoes,  or  arrived 
in  the  colony  from  some  other  port,  to  seek  his  livdng, 
rather  than  to  make  his  fortune  :  he  has  spent  all  his 
life  since  among  the  sugar-canes.  He  is  not  merely 
a  scientific  farmer  on  a  large  scale,  in  a  country 
where  farming  has  inherited  from  its  Dutch  founders 
the  necessity  and  benefits  of  a  vast  system  of  water 
engineering,  and  where  the  advantages  of  a  tropical 
climate  and  fertility  are  almost  counterbalanced  by 
the  tropical  violence  of  the  elements ;  he  must  not 
only  have  in  common  with  other  large  producers  a 
sufficient  knowledge  of  trade  to  be  able  to  watch 
prices  and  appreciate  the  views  of  market ;  but  he  is 
a  manufacturer  as  well,  with  a  singularly  beautiful 
and  delicate  process  to  conduct,  and  with  machinery 
worked  by  from  one  to  half-a-dozen  steam  engines  to 
control.  Among  British  possessions  the  colony  of 
Guiana  produces  the  largest  portion  of  the  celebrated 
vacuum-pan  sugar  ;  and  all  the  estates  in  the  colony, 
whose  proprietors  can  muster  or  borrow  the  money, 
are,  since  the  last  modification  of  the  sugar  duties  in 
England,  fast  ordering  out  vacuum-pans,  and  con- 
verting their  machinery.  Not  but  what  the  old- 
fashioned  common-process  sugar-making  alike  re- 
quired care  and  extraordinary  assiduity  in  the  manu- 
facturer—  that  is,  the  manager  —  who  has  to  get 
delicate  operations  of  boiling,  tempering,  and  clari- 
f}dng  accurately  performed  by  half-skilled  workmen 
of  heterogeneous  races,  where  one  mistake  may  prove 
fatal  to  the  whole.  The  peculiar  characteristic  ot  the 
sugar  industry,  which  has  hitherto  prevented  the 
separation  of  manufacture  from  agriculture — namely, 
that  the  canes  must  be  crushed  when  cut,  and  the 
liquor  boiled  upon  the  spot,  or  at  least  without  a 
day's  unnecessary  delay^adds  enormously  to  his 
4ifficulties,    All  the  parts   of   his   machinery  —  the 


ESTATES,  MANAGEMENT,  ETC  75 

cane-crusher,  the  clarifiers,  the  copper  wall,  and  the 
centrifugals — must  work  evenly  together,  or  time, 
which  is  money,  will  be  wasted,  the  fuel  consumed  ; 
the  dried  '  megass,'  or  the  refuse  of  the  squeezed 
canes,  must  be  protected  from  the  weather — that  is, 
from  the  rains  of  Demerara — and  stored  in  sufficient 
quantity  for  the  furnaces.  A  single  break-down  of 
the  machinery  may  destroy  the  returns  of  much 
labour  and  expenditure  ;  a  single  misunderstanding 
with  the  labourers  may  make  the  whole  profit  of  a 
month's  labour  vanish  on  the  spot. 

"When  to  this  is  added  the  task  of  controlling, 
humouring,  and  acting  earthly  providence  to  some 
hundreds  of  labourers  of  different  races,  of  different 
kinds  and  degrees  of  civilisation — the  Creole  task- 
gang,  independent,  punctilious,  contracting  on  equal 
terms,  as  much  for  the  sale  of  their  labour  as  for  the 
earning  of  wages ;  the  Chinese,  silent,  observant, 
and  capricious,  ready  to  hang  himself  or  desert  at 
a  moment's  notice  for  reasons  inappreciable  to  a 
European  ;  the  Coolie,  indolent  to  a  fault,  though 
generally  amenable,  with  terrible  drawbacks  of  re- 
vengefulness  and  untruthfulness — and  when  the  busi- 
ness of  an  estate  has  to  be  carried  on  somehow,  as  is 
too  often  the  case,  with  but  a  scanty  margin  of  annual 
profit  for  mistakes,  between  a  chronic  complaint  to 
the  Immigration  Office  of  insufficient  wages  on  the 
one  hand,  and  a  peremptory  order  of  retrenchment 
from  the  attorney  on  the  other,  it  will  become  evident 
that  two  conclusions  at  least  must  be  drawn  as  to 
managers  by  those  who  would  gain  a  correct  idea  of 
the  position  of  their  indentured  labourers.  First,  they 
cannot  possibly,  as  a  class,  or  in  any  numbers,  be 
either  stupid  or  resourceless  in  difficulties,  or  indif- 
ferent to  suffering,  or  malevolent,  or  cruel ;  secondly, 
the  welfare  of  the  Asiatic  immigrants  bound  over  to 
service  to  an  employer  in  such  a  position,  weighed 


76  THE  COOLIE. 

down  with  such  difficulties  and  responsibilities,  ought 
not  to  bo  intrusted  without  supervision  to  his  sole 
sagacity  and  care." 

The  manager  is  the  person  with  whom  the  Coolie 
has  directly  to  do.  I  have  heard  of  instances  in 
which  immigrants  have  appealed  to  the  attorney,  but 
they  are  rare.  The  manager  prosecutes,  and  in  the 
very  few  cases  in  which  Coolies  are  plaintiffs  he  is 
defendant ;  yet,  in  dealing  with  estates,  or  points 
arising  out  of  the  immigration  ordinances,  the  Execu- 
tive appear  to  recognise  a  divided  responsibility,  and 
to  resort  sometimes  to  the  manager  and  sometimes  to 
the  attorney.  In  one  or  two  instances,  on  large 
estates,  the  manager  has  a  deputy-manager  under 
him,  but  generally  the  next  person  to  a  manager  on 
the  staff  of  the  estate  is  the  overseer.  The  overseer 
directly  superintends  certain  "  gangs "  in  field  or 
building  work.  He  has  to  be  early  on  horseback, 
laying  out  his  hands  upon  his  portion  of  the  estate, 
and  through  the  day  he  overlooks  the  weeding,  plant- 
ing, digging,  takes  account  in  his  field-book  of  the 
people  at  work,  noting  whether  they  are  in  the  field 
or  absent,  with  the  amount  of  money  they  earn  in  the 
day ;  and  in  the  evening  ascertains  from  the  hospital 
book  whether  any  of  his  gang  have  the  excuse  of 
sickness  for  absence  from  w^ork.  His  book  then 
presents  a  record  of  the  day's  labour,  which,  after 
examination  and  certification  by  the  manager,  is 
transferred  to  the  "  pay-list "  and  signed  by  him. 
From  this  document,  also  called  the  vmster-roll  book, 
is  taken  the  evidence  of  wages  due,  as  well  as  the 
proof  in  the  magistrate's  court  of  the  absence  or 
presence  of  the  immigrant  on  any  given  day.*  Six  or 
eight  overseers  may  be  found  on  an  estate.  In 
former  times  they  were  principally  coloured,  but  the 

*  A.  beautiful  instance  of  the  manufacture  of  evidence  by  an  amateur 

legislative  hand ! 


ESTATES,  MANAGEMENT,  ETC.  77 

partiality  for  young  Englishmen  or  Scotchmen  is 
increasing.  When  once  they  are  acclimatised  they 
are  not  only  more  trustworthy  but  more  vigorous 
than  the  Creoles.  I  saw  many  of  these  young  men 
apparently  suffering  from  the  tremendous  exposure 
and  the  abominable  climate,  but  others  seemed  to 
endure  the  long  hours  in  the  hot  sun  without  incon- 
venience. 

Under  the  overseers  are  foremen  (or,  more  cor- 
rectly, drivers,  for  I  had  an  idea  that  the  former  term 
was  a  clever  euphemism  invented  by  ]\Ir.  Russell  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Commissioners.  I  never  heard  the 
word  used  except  in  his  evidence),  who  are  the  im- 
mediate supervisors  of  each  gang.  They  watch  the 
work,  take  note  of  its  quality,  and  probably  keep  the 
labourers  up  to  duty.  They  are  always  of  the  black, 
or  Coolie,  or  Chinese  race,  and  their  relations  to  the 
labourers  give  rise  to  the  greatest  of  the  difficulties 
that  occur  on  estates.  The  blacks  are  inclined  to 
selfishness,  domineering,  cheating,  and  favouritism  ; 
they  are  naturally  prejudiced  against  the  Coolie,  as 
an  interloper  of  another  and  physically  weaker  race. 
They  are  not  governed  by  principle.  Their  greed  or 
their  passion  may  lead  them — and  often  does  lead 
them — to  perpetrate  criminal  injustice  in  the  pursuit 
of  it.  Hence  these  are  the  persons  on  the  estate's 
staff  which  need  the  firmest  restraint  and  watchful- 
ness on  the  part  of  managers  and  overseers. 

For  the  buildings  is  required  an  engineer,  generally 
a  Scotchman  or  an  Englishman,  though  one  of  the 
ablest  engineers  in  the  colony  is  a  coloured  gentle- 
man. He  may  have  the  machinery  of  two  or  three 
estates  under  his  care,  and  is  generally  equal  to  any 
emergency  arising  out  of  the  accidents  liable  con- 
stantly to  occur  to  the  complicated  and  beautiful 
machinery  used  in  the  vacuun  pan  process.  Very 
clever  sub-engineers  are  found  among  the  blacks  and 


78  THE  COOLIE. 

Chinese.  To  these  we  must  add  the  book-keeper 
and  the  hospital  staff,  consisting  of  the  doctor,  head 
sick-nurse,  under-nurses,  and  cook. 

We  may  now  turn  to  the  constitution  of  the  estate 
forces.  The  number  of  labourers  on  single  estates 
varies  from  one  or  two  hundred  up  to  a  thousand. 
Kx.  Leonora  the  total  number  of  immigrants  was  683. 
Perhaps  one-third,  or  even  half  as  many  more,  of  the 
Creole  blacks  work  on  such  an  estate,  but  not  doing 
on  the  average  more  than  three  days'  work  a  week. 
The  available  forces  then  will  be  marshalled  in 
gangs  for  the  various  objects  of  the  work.  The 
strongest  will  form  the  "  shovel  gang,"  or  "  cane- 
cutting  gang"  in  crop  time;  the  less  able  will  con- 
stitute the  "weeding  gang;"  there  will  be  also  a 
"building  gang;"  and  these  gangs  again  will  be 
subdivided,  for  ease  of  management  and  purposes  of 
calculation,  into  the  "  Creole  gangs,"  the  "  Coolie 
gangs,"  the  "  light  gang "  of  weakly  men,  women, 
and  children,  who  may  be  seen  working  in  the 
megass  yard.  In  the  buildings  will  be  found  from 
90  to  150  at  work;  the  rest  are  distributed  over  the 
fields,  if  not  in  the  hospital  or  skulking. 

Such  is  the  constitution  of  an  estate's  staff,  and  of 
its  labour  force.  I  have  already  described  the  nature 
of  the  work  to  be  performed  by  this  great  community, 
which  lives  by  itself,  is  shut  in  with  itself,  must  find 
its  news  and  its  amusement,  as  well  as  its  task,  out 
of  itself.  Take  a  large  factory  in  Manchester,  or  Bir- 
mingham, or  Belfast,  build  a  wall  round  it,  shut  in 
its  workpeople  from  all  intercourse,  save  at  rare 
intervals,  with  the  outside  world,  keep  them  in  abso- 
lute heathen  ignorance,  and  get  all  the  work  you  can 
out  of  them,  treat  them  not  unkindly,  leave  their 
social  habits  and  relations  to  themselves,  as  matters 
not  concerning  you  who  make  the  money  from  their 
labour,  and  you  would  have  constituted  a  little  com- 


ESTATES,  MANAGEMENT,  ETC.  79 

munity  resembling,    in   no   small   degree,    a   sugar- 
estate  village  in  British  Guiana. 

I  should  now  give  an  idea  of  the  enterprise  and 
cost  contributed  by  the  planters  to  the  vast  manufac- 
turing venture  implied  by  all  I  have  described.  It  is 
needful  to  remind  ourselves  of  this  that  we  may  be 
the  more  cautious  against  doing  him  any  injustice  in 
considering  the  system  on  which  his  fortune  depends. 
One  of  the  friends  who,  during  my  sojourn  in  the 
colony,  showed  me  the  most  generous  and  unvarying 
kindness,  though  himself  a  great  planter  and  deeply 
concerned  in  the  immigration  of  Coolies,  showed  me 
the  books  of  a  fine  estate  which  was  being  rapidly 
worked  up  to  the  producing  standard  ;  and  also  fur- 
nished me  with  an  abstract  from  them,  with  per- 
mission to  use  it  as  I  deemed  fit.  I  cannot  do  better 
justice  to  the  position  of  the  planters,  nor  could  I  find 
a  neater  expression  of  their  views,  than  is  contained 
in  a  letter  which  my  friend  WTote  in  sending  me 
these  notes. 

"  My  dear  Sir, 

"According  to  promise,  I  now  send  you  ex- 
tracts from  the  books  of  plantation  .  .  showing  the 
working  account  of  that  estate  for  six  years  ending 
Dec.  31,  1869  ;  also  a  memorandum  of  what  I  expect 
the  result  will  turn  out  for  the  present  year. 

"  You  will  observe  that  the  amount  of  money  sunk 
has  been  considerable.  At  the  same  time  I  cannot 
exactly  call  it  a  *  Loss,'  as  the  estate  has  been 
materially  improved  during  the  period  ;  but  I  think 
that  the  figures  show  that  '  Labour '  has  had  its  full 
share  (if  not  much  over)  the  value  ot  the  products  of 
the  soil.  You  will  also  notice  that  as  the  estate  ex- 
panded the  amount  of  money  expended  under  this  head 
materially  increased,  having  risen  from  $17,485.03 
in  1864  to  ^45,328.68  in  1869. 


8o  THE  COOLIE. 

"The  sheet  contains  a  memorandum  of  acres  of  cane 
cut  each  year,  and  the  quantity  of  sugar,  &c.,  made  ; 
and  the  result  over  the  series  of  years  shows  a  return 
which  I  do  not  think  can  be  exceeded  in  the  colony. 
And  when  I  also  bring  to  your  notice  that  the  estate 
has  been  under  the  control  of  a  planter  of  high  repu- 
tation, who  resides  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood, 
and  is  directly  interested  in  the  results,  I  think  that 
bad  management  can  scarcely  be  given  as  the  reason 
that  so  far  no  revenue  has  accrued. 

"  The  figures  show  what  an  expenditure  of  capital  is 
required  to  develop  a  sugar  estate,  even  to  a  moderate 
extent,  as  ...  is  comparatively  only  a  small  estate. 

"The  probable  results  for  1870  will  likely  give  some 
return  for  the  outlay,  but  I  may  note  that  they  are  based 
on  the  sugar  bringing  present  value,  and  this  is  high 
rather  than  otherwise,  and  a  fall  of  one  penny  or  half- 
penny per  lb.  (which  is  quite  on  the  cards)  would  give  a 
very  different  result  from  what  I  anticipate,  which  would 
lessen  the  value  of  the  crop  some  $13,000,  and  instead 
of  a  profit  would  again  leave  a  considerable  loss. 

"You  will  notice  that  the  acreage  cut  in  1864  was 
190  acres,  and  we  expect  to  reap  377  acres  for  the 
present  crop  ;  and  when  I  mention  that  1,200  acres  ot 
land  are  available,  I  think  that  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  with  so  much  in  hand  there  is  not  any  fear 
that  any  increase  in  our  working  population  would  act 
detrimentally  to  the  interest  of  the  labourers  now  in 
the  colony,  or  rather  in  the  neighbourhood  of  this  par- 
ticular property  ;  and  I  may  name  that  most  estates 
in  this  and  other  districts  are  very  similarly  situated. 

"  The  information  given  is  at  your  service,  and  I 
hope  may  be  useful." 

By  the  account  thus  kindly  furnished  it  appears  that, 
beginning  at  the  first  year,  1864,  the  expense  account 
and  produce  account  were  relatively  as  follows  : — 


ESTATES,  MANAGEMENT,  ETC. 


8i 


Expenses, 
Immigration  dues     , 
Salaries,  supplies,  fuel 

hospital,  &CC.  .  . 
Labour  Account  . 
Interest 


1864. 

Produce. 
$2,948.62       Acres  cut,  190. 

Crop — 373  hhds.  sugar, 

242  casks  molasses    . 

Loss  for  1864      .    •    • 


16,737-97 

17.485-03 

2,639.45 


5,811.07 


$30,279.08 
9.531-99 

$39,811.07 


1865. 


Immigration  dues 
Salaiies,  8cc.    .     . 
Labour  Account , 
Interest      •    .    .    . 


$2,744.66 

27,987.99 

19,873.96 

2,972.14 


553.578-75 


Acres  cut,  232. 

Crop — 546  hhds.  sugar, 
42  brls.  do.,  59  puns 
rum,  294  casks  mo 
lasses  

Loss  for  1865  .     •     • 


$50,366.59 
3,212  16 

«S3.578.7S 


1866. 


Immigration  dues 
Salaries,  &c.    .     .     , 
Labour  Account 
Interest .     .    .    .    , 


$3,300-83 

38.575-84 

21,189.13 

3,090.91 


S,i86.7i 


Acres  cut,  296. 

Crop — 495  hhds.  sugar, 
7  brls.  do.,  81  puns 
rum,  253  casks  mo 
lasses  .     .     .     .     , 

Loss  for  1866  .     ,    , 


$44,484.26 
21,702.45 

$66,186.71 


Immigration  dues 
Salaries,  Sec.    .     . 
Labour  Account 
Interest .... 


1867. 
53.177-79      Acres  cut,  226. 


Immigration  dues 
Salaries,  &c.    .     . 
Labour  Account 
Interest  .... 
Profit  for  1868     . 


22,649.07 

22,861.99 

3.694-99 


$52,383-84 


Crop — 520  hhds.  sugar, 

166    puns,    rum,    356 

casks  molasses.     .     .   $48,368.80 
Loss  for  1867  ....      4,015.04 


«52,383-84 


1868. 
$3,038.81       Acres  cut,  300, 


30.215 

33.563 

3,407 

1.043 


79 


Crop — 714  hlids.  sugar, 
II  tees,  do.,  138  puns, 
rum,  377  casks  mo- 
lasses  $71,269.04 


$71,269.04 


$71,269.04 


82 


THE  COOLIE. 


Immigration  dues     . 
Salaries,  &c.    .     .     . 
Labour  Account  . 
Interest  •     •     •    •    • 

i8 
,     $3,926.91 

•    55,542.15 
.    45,328.68 
,      4, 06?. 08 

69. 

Acres 
Crop- 

313 
mel 

356 

Esti 

Loss  e 

lARY. 
•      • 

cut,  353. 

-761  hhds.  sugar, 
brls.  do.,  45  tees, 
ido,  69  puns,  rum, 

casks    molasses, 
mated  value    .     .  $92,237.44 
stimated  for  1869     15,624.28 

Loss 
Less 

$107,861.72 

SUMJ 

for  year  1 864 
1865 

„             1866 
1867 

„             1869 

profit  for  1868 

$107,861.72 

•     $9,531-99 
3,212.16 
.     21,702.45 
.      4,015.04 
.     15,624.28 

$54,085.92 
.       1.043-79 

$53,042.13  or 
,050  %s.  lod. 

In  the  aggregate  it  will  be  seen  that  the  expenses 
exceeded  the  profits  during  the  six  years  by 
053,042.13,  or  ;^ 1 1,050  8s.  10^.;  and  a  fair  idea  may 
be  formed  of  the  amount  of  capital  that  must  be  sunk, 
and  the  time  that  must  elapse,  even  under  favourable 
circumstances,  before  the  capitalist  begins  to  get  any 
returns.  My  correspondent  points  out  that  his  hope 
of  profits  depends  on  the  extension  of  the  cultivation, 
and  that  again  on  the  further  supply  of  Coolies.  No 
one  can  be  surprised  if  the  slightest  hint  of  such  a 
catastrophe  as  the  stoppage  of  Immigration  excites 
the  blood  of  men  with  so  much  at  stake. 


83 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IMMIGRATION   ORGANISATION  IN  INDIA  AND 
BRITISH   GUIANA. 

NEXT  to  the  constitution  and  working  of  the 
estates,  I  may  now  naturally  turn  the  reader's 
glance  upon  the  machinery  and  process  of  immigra- 
tion. An  interesting  account  of  the  origin  and  pro- 
gress of  this  movement  in  British  Guiana  is  given  in 
the  Commissioners'  Report,  and  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix.*  By  that  it  will  be  seen  that  as  early  as 
1838  a  ship-load  of  immigrants  was  introduced  into 
Demerara  from  Calcutta.  From  that  time  onwards  the 
luckless  planters,  as  they  found  their  crops  dwindling, 
their  emancipated  blacks  shirking  all  labour,  and 
bankruptcy  staring  them  in  the  face,  looked  longingly 
towards  those  exhaustless  Asiatic  sources  of  labour- 
supply — China  and  India.  Portuguese  had  been 
introduced  in  large  numbers  on  the  failure  of  the  vine 
in  Madeira,  but  the  "  mortality  was  appalling  to 
the  community  that  had  invited  them."  Barbadians 
and  free  Africans  were  tried  without  success.  Up  to 
1845-6  so  much  as  ;^378,830  had  been  expended  by 
the  colony  in  immigration  efforts  with  hardly  any 
good  results,  and  with  an  amount  of  suffering  to  the 
poor  creatures  concerned  which  it  were  better  now  to 
bury  from  human  memory. 

•  See  Appendix  C. 


84  THE  COOLIE, 

The  Commissioners,  referring  to  the  time  from 
which  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  dates,  have  re- 
marked upon  two  points  of  differing  but  interesting 
significance.  "  It  is  a  singular  fact,  well  worthy  the 
notice  of  economists,  that  the  fall  of  the  old  proprie- 
tary, and  the  consequent  transmutation  of  colonial 
agriculture  into  a  business  entirely  commercial  and 
speculative,  by  the  loss  of  the  traditional  sentiment 
which  attaches  to  old  family  estates,  was  contempo- 
raneous with  the  first  signs  of  recuperative  energy 
in  the  sugar  industry.  Mr.  Kelly  dates  in  1848  the 
first  pause  in  its  downward  career;  in  1851 — the  two 
dates  just  covering  the  transition  period  in  question — 
the  first  symptoms  of  its  revival.  One  cause  of  the 
revival  was  the  timely  and  judicious  assistance  at  this 
time  voted  by  Parliament  to  the  West  India  interest. 
Of  the  sums  permitted  to  be  raised  under  Parliament 
on  guarantee,  ^250,000  was  the  share  apportioned 
to  British  Guiana,  and  it  was  decided  by  the  Colonial 
Government  to  expend  ^50,000  of  this  upon  a  railway, 
and  the  rest  in  reviving  the  East  Indian  immigration." 

This  latter  point  is  worthy  the  special  attention  of 
those  who  look  upon  our  colonies  as  a  useless  ap- 
pendage or  an  unendurable  burthen.  The  timely  aid 
given  by  a  government  then  conscious  of  imperial 
duties,  as  it  was  animated  by  imperial  pride — two 
feelings  which  of  late  seem  to  have  been  subject  to 
the  anaesthetic  of  a  false  political  economy — while  it 
did  not  rob  the  British  tax-payer  of  a  solitary  farthing, 
has  been  over  and  over  again  handsomely  recipro- 
cated by  British  Guiana.  While  a  Financial  Reform 
Association — so  called — by  statistics  unfairly  used,  by 
representations  of  the  expense  that  his  affection 
costs  him,  excites  the  animosity  of  the  British 
tax-payer  against  his  natural  brethren  of  the  pre- 
sent, his  most  hopeful  allies  of  the  future,  let  me 
ask  him    to    consider  for  a   moment  the  following 


IMMIGRATION  ORGANISATION,  ETC.        85 

facts.  A  rough  estimate  has  been  made  of  the 
amount  of  duties  levied  on  the  produce  of  British 
Guiana  imported  into  Great  Britain,  under  the 
fiscal  regulations  of  the  Home  Government,  even  at 
the  reduced  rates  of  duties  in  i866.     These  are — 

On  90,000  hhds.  sugar   ......     ;^6"6,ooo 

30,000  puns,  rum 1,769,000 

15,000  casks  molasses 26,200 

/2,47I,200 

subject  to  deductions  for  what  may  be  re-exported 
from  Great  Britain.  In  1861  the  colony  cost  the 
British  Government  ;^40,ooo ;  and  yet  in  face  of  the 
above  figures  *"  financial  reformers "  will  argue  that 
we  were  being  robbed  to  pay  for  people  four  thou- 
sand miles  off.  While  they  print  an  elaborate  pam- 
phlet to  show  what  duties  are  levied  on  British 
manufactures,  and  protest  against  the  injustice  of  it, 
they  say  nothing  whatever  of  the  levy  of  duty  on 
British  Guianian  sugars,  for  instance,  by  the  Home 
Government.  In  addition  to  the  English  shipping 
and  labour  employed  and  benefited  by  this  great 
trade,  there  is  the  corresponding  export  from  Great 
Britain  by  and  on  behalf  of  the  British  Guianian 
houses.  In  1861  the  average  annual  consumption  of 
British  goods  amounted  to  the  sum  of  ^^5  ts.  Zd.  per 
head.  In  1864  the  sum  per  head  was  £^  \\s*  This 
by  the  way. 

Through  the  history  of  the  course  of  legislation  in 
India  and  British  Guiana  I  do  not  propose  to  carry 
the  reader.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  review  the  arriinge- 
ments  by  which  at  this  time  Indians  are  converted 
into  immigrants. 

This  legislation  was  in  1864  embodied — principally 
by  the  great  industry,  ability,  and  experience  of  Mr. 
James  Crosby,  the  Immigration  Agent-General,  and 

•  British  Guiana  Directory,  1870. 


86  THE  COOLIE. 

every  way  as  honourable  and  upright  an  officer  as 
the  colony  contains  —  in  an  ordinance  designated 
"  Number  4  of  1864."  I  do  not  speak  of  the  ordinance 
with  as  much  unmixed  admiration  as  of  its  compiler ; 
for  not  only  was  it  rather  complicated,  verbose,  and 
untechnical  in  its  original  draft,  but,  its  author  alleges, 
was  still  more  violently  distorted  from  concinnity  by 
the  treatment  it  endured  at  the  hands  of  the  legis- 
lature. By  a  singular  omission  the  head  of  the 
Immigration  Department  is  not  a  member  of  the 
Court  of  Policy.  When  one  considers  the  dominance 
given  in  that  body  to  one  interest,  this  omission 
is,  until  it  is  rectified,  clearly  fatal  to  any  claim  that 
may  be  advanced  by  the  planters  to  the  sympathies 
of  the  British  Government  or  British  public.  Even 
this  would  afford  but  a  limited  redress  of  the  in- 
equality, but  it  would  at  least  give  to  some  representa- 
tive of  the  Coolie's  rights  a  voice  in  the  legislation 
that  concerns  him.  The  exceedingly  earnest  language 
of  the  Commissioners  on  this  point  will  need  to  be 
kept  in  view  by  those  to  whom  it  is  addressed,  and 
those  who  have  pledged  themselves  to  vindicate  the 
Coolie's  interests. 

"The  mishaps  which  have  attended  the  work  of 
legislation  in  immigration  matters,  of  which  many 
clauses  in  the  Acts  of  1864  and  1868  are  conspicuous 
monuments,  might  all  have  been  averted,  and  pro- 
bably would  have  been,  if  the  official  whose  duty  it 
was  to  carry  them  into  execution  had  had  a  voice  in 
the  discussions  which  preceded  their  enactment.  It 
appears  likely  that  legislation  will  still  be  necessary 
to  remove  the  more  flagrant  of  the  anomalies  which 
exist,  if  not  to  introduce  novel  provisions  for  the 
improvement  of  the  system ;  but  the  experience  of 
past  legislation  would  leave  us  hopeless  of  any 
approximation  to  completeness  in  the  work,  if  it  were 
to   be  conducted  in  the  hap-hazard  way  of  former 


IMMIGRATION  ORGANISATION,  ETC.        87 

times.  The  present  Agent-General  tells  us  that  he 
drew  the  ordinance  of  1864 ;  the  present  Acting 
Agent-General  made  the  first  draft  of  the  ordinance 
of  1868;  but  in  both  cases  they  refuse  to  recognise 
their  offspring,  ill-treated  as  it  was  in  their  absence 
by  the  legislature,  without  their  having  any  oppor- 
tunity of  explaining  it,  or  of  bringing  the  modifications 
so  effected  into  harmony  with  the  whole. 

"  In  another  respect,  we  think  it  expedient  that  the 
Immigration  Agent-General  should  have  a  seat  in  the 
Court  of  Policy.  He  would  represent  in  his  ofiicial 
capacity  the  interests  of  a  very  large  section  of  the 
population  who  are  at  present  necessarily  excluded 
from  direct  representation  in  the  legislature.  The 
weakest  side  of  the  constitution  of  British  Guiana  is 
confessed  to  be  the  exclusiveness  by  which  direct 
representation  is  confined  to  one  interest,  the  most 
powerful  in  the  colony,  although  certainly  the  most 
capable ;  and  any  small  modification  which  would 
tend,  although  indirectly,  to  diversify  the  constituent 
elements  ought  to  be  thankfully  welcomed,  both  by 
the  public  and  the  predominant  interest  itself.  There 
are,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to  show,  special  reasons 
in  the  nature  of  his  work  for  allowing  the  Agent- 
General  a  large  discretionary  action  before  calling  in 
the  interposition  of  the  Executive  in  person.  To  these 
we  desire  to  add,  that  in  any  future  nomination  to 
the  office,  it  will  be  simply  impossible  to  secure  the 
services  of  an  official  qualified  to  perform  its  duties 
so  long  as  his  functions  are  limited,  as  at  present,  to 
the  merest  routine  work,  and  the  expansion  into 
letters  of  minutes  written  by  the  Governor.  Such 
duties  might  be  satisfactorily  performed  by  a  head 
clerk  without  any  particular  standing  ;  but  this  is 
not  all  that  has  to  be  provided  for.  Personal  qualities 
of  a  higher  order,  though  of  a  kind  happily  not  rare 
among  our  fellow-countrymen,  are  required  in  the 


88  THE  COOLIE. 

official  to  whom  50,000  expatriated  Asiatics  are  look- 
ing for  watchful  protection  and  guidance.  Powers  also 
of  considerable  magnitude  must  be  frankly  intrusted 
to  him  if  he  is  to  have  any  personal  influence  for 
good." 

In  this  ordinance  are  provisions  for  the  erection  of 
an  Immigration  Department,  with  its  Agent-General, 
sub-immigration  agents,  clerks,  and  interpreters  in 
the  colony — its  Emigration  Agents  "  to  superintend 
the  emigration  of  labourers  from  any  of  the  ports  of 
the  East  Indies,  China,  or  elsewhere,"  to  the  colony, 
with  their  staff;  and  lastly,  its  Medical  Inspector  of 
Estates  Hospitals. 

I  will  briefly  review  the  position  and  work  of  these 
officials.  There  is  the  Emigration  Agent  in  India, 
with  a  salary  of  ;^  1,000  sterling  a  year,  and  a  capita- 
tion allowance  of  three  shillings  on  immigrants  sent 
by  him  and  arriving  in  the  colony.  This  latter 
allowance  was  granted  as  an  incentive  to  the  agent 
to  send  a  proper  class  of  people,  for  undoubtedly 
before  1862  some  of  the  unhappy  creatures  shipped 
by  the  gentleman  who  then  drew  his  ;^  1,000  a  year 
were  unfit  for  any  good  purpose.  They  died  like 
sheep,  or  suffered  from  diseases  worse  than  death. 
The  injustice  to  the  planters  was  manifest  and  great. 

The  Government  of  India  also  supervises  the  emi- 
gration of  its  subjects,  and  curiously  enough  it  came 
out  before  the  Commission  that  the  capitation  grant 
was  contrary  to  an  Indian  act.*  The  Commissioners 
say  (par.  202)  :  "  We  presume  from  this  that  the 
Government  of  India  is  no  more  aware  that  the  Emi- 
gration Agent  is  still  paid  by  capitation  allowance, 
in  addition  to  his  salary,  than  the  Immigration  Agent- 
General  in  the  colony  was  found  to  be  of  the  pro- 
visions in  the  act  against  it !  "  However,  it  seems  to 
have  had  the  effect  of  stopping  the  careless  supply 

•    13  of  1864,  S.  12. 


IMMIGRATION  ORGANISATION,  ETC.        89 

of  inefficient  Coolies.  A  Protector  of  Emigrants  at 
Calcutta  is  appointed  to  perform  on  behalf  of  his 
government  the  work  which  his  name  implies. 

Mr.  Crosby,  in  reply  to  a  question,  "  Have  you 
had  any  coiTespondence  with  the  Protector  of  Emi- 
grants ? "  said,  "  None  other  than  merely  a  letter 
announcing  '  I  have  sent  such  and  such  papers.' 
When  I  have  made  any  comments  upon  any  circum- 
stances I  have  never  had  the  gratification  of  receiv- 
ing any  reply.  I  have  frequently  hinted  at  matters 
which  I  have  thought  might  be  improved,  but  he  has 
never  condescended  to  reply." 

Worse  than  the  man  who  sends  you  an  insolent 
answer — which  at  least  admits  you  to  be  worth  his 
indignation — is  the  man  who  never  condescends  to 
reply.  He  stands  upon  a  rock,  and  is  as  imper- 
turbable to  busy  reformers  as  his  basis.  But  I  had 
scarcely  thought  it  possible  that  in  this  age,  when 
the  rigid  insolence  of  place  has  had  its  back  so 
thoroughly  broken,  there  existed  even  among  the 
fossil  remains  of  permanent  officialism  a  specimen 
of  the  civil  servant  who  never  condescends  to  reply. 
Now  that  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India  has  had 
his  attention  drawn  to  this  singular  officer,  he  may 
perhaps  find  room  for  him  among  the  curiosities  of 
the  India  Museum. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  how  important  both  to  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  planter  and  the  humane 
interest  of  the  philanthropist  is  the  part  to  be  played 
in  the  Coolie  system  by  the  emigration  stalf  in  India. 
Unwise  selection  of  people,  who  are  either  of  weak 
frames,  sufferers  from  disease,  or  are  not  fitted  for 
agricultural  labour,  will  not  only  prove  a  loss  to  the 
employer,  but  an  increase  of  sorrow  to  themselves. 
Among  the  Chinese  immigrants  I  found  people  who 
had  been  doctors,  schoolmasters,  and  the  like,  and 
Mr.  Crosby  stated  that  on  inquiry  he  had  found  the 


90  THE  COOLIE. 

immigrants  from  China  to  have  belonged  to  as  many 
as  one  hundred  and  fifty  occupations — one  returning 
himself  as  "a  professed  gambler."  The  Commissioners 
examined  personally  some  immigrants  by  a  ship 
called  the  Alcdca,  with  this  result : — "  Out  of  thirty 
adult  immigrants,  only  tliirtecn  were  agricultural  la- 
bourers, who,  with  one  lime-burner,  one  cowherd,  three 
peons,  and  a  sweeper,  made  the  list  of  those  accus- 
tomed to  outdoor  labour  ;  the  XQXc\2i\x\\n^  fourteeii  were 
priests,  weavers,  scribes,  shoemakers,  beggars,  and  so 
forth.  It  is  to  this  circumstance  that  a  great  deal  of 
the  discontent  upon  estates  is  due;  the  immigrants  on 
arrival  find  they  have  to  do  work  to  which  they  have 
never  been  accustomed  ;  they  get  disheartened,  and 
soon  find  their  way  into  the  estates'  hospitals."  * 

The  effect  of  vigorous  remonstrance  by  the  Deme- 
rara  authorities  has  been  to  induce  greater  care  in 
the  Indian  agents — care  to  secure  a  better  class  of 
immigrants.  But  the  whole  of  the  case  in  British 
Guiana,  as  presented  at  the  inquiry,  must  be  reviewed 
subject  to  the  consideration  that  a  large  number  of 
the  early  inefficient  importations  still  survive.  The 
difficulty  of  deciding  in  the  case  of  these  poor  people 
whether  indolence  or  feebleness  was  the  real  cause 
of  neglect  to  work,  has  all  along  been  insuperable  to 
the  colonial  administration. 

The  recruiting  agents  in  India  are  obliged  to  take 
out  a  license.  Their  business  is  to  visit  the  country 
districts,  and  represent  to  the  natives  the  advantages 
of  immigration.  Now,  what  is  it  that  they  represent  ? 
The  planter's  answer  will  be,  that  w^hatever  the 
recruiting  agent  says,  the  actual  contract  is  there  in 
black  and  white — such  a  contract  as  Lum-a- Yung's 
in  my  first  chapter — to  show  the  terms  on  which  the 
immigrant  left  his  native  land.     But  then  the  inden- 

*  See  Appendix  D  for  a  description  of  the  method  of  passing,  and  re- 
marks on  recruiting. 


IMMIGRATION  ORGANISATION,  ETC.        91 

tures  with  Indians  are  executed  in  Demerara.  More- 
over, on  the  other  hand,  the  Coolies  complained 
to  me  frequently  that  they  had  been  deceived  by  the 
agents  in  India.  Accordingly,  a  certificate  was  pro- 
duced to  me  by  a  Coolie,  and  by  me  handed  to  the 
Commission,  with  a  wages  column,  in  which  it  was 
stated  that  wages  in  the  colony  were  from  ten  annas 
(i^.  3^.)  to  two  rupees  (4^'.)  per  diem  for  agricultural 
labour.  On  a  Chinese  indenture  before  me  as  I  write  - 
is  a  note  as  follows  : — 

"  Resolution  of  the  Governor  and  Court  of  Policy 
of  British  Guiana — 'That  the  immigrant  should  be 
guaranteed  full  employment,  on  adequate  wages,  paid 
weekly,  with  a  house  rent  free,  with  medical  attend- 
ance, medicine,  food,  and  hospital  accommodation 
when  sick ;  and  that  it  should  be  explained  to  them 
that  a  man  can  earn  easily  from  two  to  four  shillings, 
women  from  one  to  two  shillings,  and  children  eight- 
pence  per  diem,  and  that  a  full  supply  of  food  for  a 
man  can  be  bought  for  eightpence  per  diem.'  "  The 
indenture  was  made  in  1863. 

Let  us,  therefore,  take  only  that  of  which  there  is 
indubitable  evidence,  namely,  that  the  above  state- 
ments were  made  by  the  recruiting  agent.  If  it 
should  turn  out  that  only  a  strong  man  can  earn  two 
to  four  shillings  a  day,  and  that  one  shilling  or  one- 
and  threepence  is  the  usual  average  pay,  what  remedy 
would  Tan-a-Leung  or  Achattu  have  against  the 
government  of  British  Guiana  or  against  his  em- 
ployers ?  None  whatever.  When  he  arrives  there 
he  finds  himself  to  be  subject  to  a  law  which  over- 
rides his  certificate,  and  he  must  either  sit  down 
content  or — look  out  for  shot-drill.  In  such  a  case 
his  only  appeal  would  be  to  the  J>ritish  people  and 
Government.  Let  us  see  Mr.  Crosby's  opinion  upon 
this  point : — 

Q.  2500.    Might   I   ask  whether   you    would    not 


92  THE  COOLIE. 

consider  that  certificate  a  sort  of  contract  with  the 
immigrants  made  out  of  this  colony  ? 

A.  I  consider  it  was  upon  this  representation  that 
they  came  to  this  colony.  It  is  a  statement  made  by 
the  magistrate  in  India  to  the  immigrant,  when  he  is 
taken  before  the  magistrate,  under  Act  i6  of  1864,  by 
the  recruiter ;  because  this  is  presented  to  the  Pro- 
tector of  Immigrants  on  his  arrival  in  Calcutta. 

Q.  This  is  the  representation  made  to  the  immi- 
grant on  which  he  comes  here  ? 

A.  Yes.     Ten  annas,  I  believe,  is  \s.  3^. 

Q.  In  this  colony  it  would  not  be  considered  as  a 
contract,  because  such  contracts  are  rendered  invalid 
by  legislation  ?     Is  it  not  so  ? 

A.  There  is  no  contracty  in  fact ^  made  in  India  with  the 
Indian  ivimigrant. 

Q.  None  acknowledged  in  this  colony  ? 

A.  None. 

Q.  It  may  be  a  question  whether  this  is  not  a  con- 
tract in  India  r 

A.  This  is  not  looked  upon  as  a  contract.  It  is 
not  presented  to  us.  We  know  nothing  about  it  in 
point  of  fact.  I  believe  it  to  be  very  seldom  that  they 
possess  them  on  their  arrival.  I  dare  say  many  are 
very  careless  of  them,  but  some  preserve  them  with 
great  care. 

Q.  Then  in  answer  to  my  question  whether  this 
could  be  recognised  as  a  contract  in  this  colony,  you 
would  say  certainly  not  ? 

A.  Certainly  not. 

On  the  statement  in  the  Chinese  indentures  the 
Commissioners  report  :  "  Now,  although  an  able- 
bodied  Negro  can  earn  from  three  to  four  shillings  by 
from  nine  to  ten  hours  of  work  in  the  field,  it  is  well 
known  that  a  Chinaman  cannot ;  moreover,  the  Negro 
does  not  *  easily '  earn  it,  but  earns  it  by  a  good 
steady  day's  work.     It  is  hardly  fair  to  compare  the 


IMMIGRA  TION  ORGANISA  TION,  ETC.        9 3 

Negro  and  the  Chinaman  where  heavy  field  work  is 
required  ;  for  the  Negro  is  physically  far  superior  to 
the  class  of  Chinese  who  have  emigrated  to  this 
colony.  The  Chinese  complained  that  they  had 
been  deceived  in  this  respect,  for  on  arrival  they 
found  they  could  not  earn  the  wages  they  had  been 
led  to  believe  they  could."  As  to  the  Indian  certi- 
ficates they  say :  "  A  more  serious  matter  is  the  state- 
ment of  wages  inserted  in  the  certificate  without  note 
or  comment,  but  required  by  the  Indian  Act  to  be 
specified  as  that  *  agreed  upon  between  the  immi- 
grants and  the  recruiter.'  The  rate  is  entered  as 
from  ten  annas  to  two  rupees,  no  difference  being 
made  in  this  particular  between  the  certificates  given  to 
males  and  females.  We  shall  hereafter  examine  into 
the  rates  of  wages  really  earned,  and  show  plainly 
that  the  effect  of  this  statement  can  only  be  to  mis- 
lead and  deceive  those  to  whom  it  is  made. 

"  The  copies  from  the  registers  kept  by  the  Protector 
and  resident  magistrates,  which  are  given  to  the 
immigrants,  and  by  them  considered  as  a  contract, 
may  not  indeed  be  held  binding  by  the  colonial  law, 
but  are  none  the  less  direct  pledges  of  the  faith  of 
the  community.  This  is  another,  and  we  are  sorry 
to  say  a  still  continuing  instance  of  that  carelessness 
as  to  the  acts  of  their  agents  abroad,  which  we  have 
had  occasion  to  notice  in  the  case  of  the  Chinese. 
Were  it  not  that  we  have  a  confident  expectation 
that  the  calling  public  attention  to  it  will  cause  the 
immediate  stoppage  of  this  abuse,  we  could  not  look 
forward  with  any  satisfaction  to  the  continuance  of 
immigration  from  India." 

Another  representation  was  made  to  me  by  the 
Coolies.  They  declared  that  they  were  never  in- 
formed that  penal  sanctions  were  attached  to  their 
contract.  They  said  the  prison  was  not  mentioned  to 
them.     If  this  should  prove  to  be  so,  it  would  be  im- 


94  THE  COOLIE. 

possible  to  overrate  the  injustice  of  inflicting  this 
punishment  upon  defaulters  for  their  breach  of  the 
labour  laws.  This  can  only  be  definitely  ascertained 
by  an  inquiry  in  India,  which  should  at  once  be  set 
on  foot.  To  secure  that  due  notice  of  the  terms  of 
contract  is  given  to  the  Coolie,  the  provisions  of  the 
ordinance  more  immediately  affecting  him  should 
be  translated  into  his  language,  and  read  to  him  by 
the  magistrate  at  the  time  of  recruiting.* 

The  agents,  after  taking  the  recruits  before  a  ma- 
gistrate, who  vises  the  certificate,  send  them  on  to  the 
depot  at  Calcutta,  where  they  await  shipment.  Here 
they  are  examined  by  the  agent,  by  the  surgeon- 
superintendent,  and  depot  surgeon,  and  passed.  The 
method  of  passage  was  the  subject  of  investigation 
by  order  of  the  Demerara  Executive  in  February, 
1870,  when  a  Dr.  Crane,  the  surgeon- superintendent 
of  the  Sophia  Joachm,  stated  :t — 

"  The  official  inspection  took  place  on  Saturday, 
the  iith  September.  The  people  w^ere  collected  on 
the  ground-floor  of  the  brick  buildings.  They  passed 
out  individually  through  the  back  verandah  in  which 
Dr.  Palmer  and  myself  were  sitting  at  a  small  table. 
As  each  person  came  to  the  table  he  presented  his 
certificate,  and  a  native — I  think  the  *  native  doc- 
tor '  of  the  British  Guiana  depot — inquired  of  the 
man  his  name  and  father's  name,  and  if  they  cor- 
responded with  the  ticket  it  was  handed  to  Dr.  Palmer 
to  sign,  who  thereupon  affixed  his  signature  and 
handed  it  to  me  for  my  signature,  which  I  declined 
to  attach,  as  I  found  it  impossible,  from  the  rapidity  of 

*  There  is  ground  for  believing  that  even  more  serious  abuses  exist  in 
the  Indian  management  than  were  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Com- 
missioners. In  a  pamphlet  recently  printed  with  the  rather  sensational  title 
"  The  New  Slavery,  "Air.  Beaumont  reprints  from  the  Madras  Times  an 
account  which,  if  true,  proves  a  state  of  tilings  simply  atiocious  and  un- 
endurable.    See  Appendix  E. 

■*-  Pars.  196,  197. 


IMMIGRA  TION  ORGANISA  TION,  ETC.        95 

the  examination,  to  refer  to  the  notes  which  I  had 
taken  at  my  previous  inspection  at  the  depot,  as  to  the 
condition  of  such  individuals  as  I  considered  likely  to 
be  unfit  for  embarkation.  I  then  stated  that  I  would 
afterwards  examine  the  people  myself,  and  compare 
them  and  the  certificates  with  my  notes,  and  sign  the 
tickets  of  those  that  I  approved.  Dr.  Palmer  said 
emphatically  that  it  would  take  a  great  deal  of  time. 
I  stated  that  it  would  not  be  necessary  for  him  to 
remain  during  such  examination.  I  contented  my- 
self, as  directed  by  Dr.  Palmer,  with  stopping  such 
people  as  manifestly  required,  in  my  opinion,  a  more 
rigid  inspection.  When  an  individual  was  objected 
to,  and  Dr.  Palmer  and  I  had  concurred  that  he  was 
not  fit  for  embarkation,  the  certificate  was  handed  to 
me  to  record  the  fact  and  the  reasons ;  but  while  I 
was  engaged  in  doing  so,  other  people  were  being 
rapidly  passed  without  my  having  any  opportunity  of 
noticing  them,  and  in  this  manner  the  inspection 
was  continued  until  finished.  I  think  about  two 
hours  were  occupied  in  this  examination.  I  then 
requested  the  Baboo  to  collect  the  people  again  for 
my  own  ofiicial  inspection,  having  no  confidence  in 
the  examination  which  had  just  taken  place.  While 
the  people  were  being  collected,  the  Baboo,  accom- 
panied with  a  clerk  from  the  British  Guiana  depot, 
returned,  when  I  was  informed  by  them  that  there 
was  no  time  for  such  an  inspection,  as  the  certificates 
of  the  people  were  required  immediately  for  making 
out  the  list  of  immigrants  for  embarkation.  I  then 
said  that  I  would  look  over  the  certificates,  and  select 
from  them  the  certificates  of  those  of  whom  I  had 
made  notes  on  my  previous  inspection.  This  I  did  ; 
and  out  of  forty-one  of  whom  I  had  made  notes  I 
lound  but  one-half,  of  whom  I  passed  fourteen  lor 
another  inspection.  Of  these  fourteen  three  died. 
This  concluded  the  inspection." 


96  THE  COOLIE. 

Adhnr  Chander  Doss,  the  surgeon-superintendent 
of  the  Sliand,  gives  similar  testimony  : — 

"  At  the  time  of  the  embarkation,  Dr.  Partridge,  the 
inspecting  surgeon  of  the  emigrants,  passed  them 
in  my  presence.  On  my  pointing  to  some  of  them  as 
looking  very  sick,  he  replied  that  a  little  good 
feeding  and  sea  air  would  bring  them  round.  On 
my  appointment,  no  reason  had  been  assigned  for  my 
hasty  appointment."  There  is  no  question  that  the 
Indian  system  is  rotten,  and  that  its  continuance  on 
its  present  basis  must  lead  to  an  early  outbreak  of 
public  indignation  in  England.  The  Government 
can  have  no  excuse  for  postponing  investigation, 
and  the  immediate  adoption  of  remedial  measures. 

From  the  depot  the  immigrants  embark,  a  general 
register  being  made  out  of  their  names  and  ages.  A 
surgeon  accompanies  each  vessel,  who  makes  a  return 
of  deaths  and  sickness.  During  last  year  sixteen 
ship-loads  of  immigrants  reached  Georgetown  from 
India. 

As  these  ships  enter  the  Demerara  river  they  come 
under  the  control  of  the  Immigration  Department. 
This  consists  of  an  Immigration  Agent-General,  with 
a  salary  of  ;^i,ooo  sterling  per  annum,  three  sub- 
agents,  one  of  whom  acts  as  a  chief  clerk,  two  clerks, 
and  four  interpreters. 

Here  we  return  to  the  Ordinance.  By  section  t^i  it 
is  provided  that,  on  the  arrival  in  Georgetown  of  an 
immigrant  ship,  the  Immigration  Agent-General  and 
the  Health  Officer  of  the  port  shall  forthwith  go  on 
board,  and  ascertain  by  personal  inspection  whether 
the  provisions  of  the  *'  Chinese  Passengers  Act, 
1855,"  or  the  "Passengers  Act,  1855,"  have  been 
complied  with.  They  are  bound  then  to  "  personally 
muster  and  carefully  inspect  the  immigrants,  and 
determine  when  necessary  (?)  their  ages,  and  more 
especially  the  ages  of  all  minor  and  infant  immigrants; 


IMMl GRA  TION  ORGANISA  TION,  ETC.        97 

and  shall  separate  such  as,  in  their  opinion,  are  not 
able-bodied  labourers,  and  not  physically  capable  of 
performing  service  as  agricultural  labourers,  from 
those  who  are,"  and  then  report  upon  the  result. 

The  immigrants  are  then  allotted  to  estates  by  the 
Immigration  Agent-General,  under  the  Governor's 
direction,  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  applied  for  by 
the  proprietors.  They  do  not  see  their  future  master 
— they  have  nothing  to  say  in  the  matter  of  their 
allotment ;  but,  by  section  37,  the  Agent-General  is 
enjoined  to  take  care  that  children  under  the  age  of 
fifteen  years  are  not  separated  from  their  parents,  natural 
guardians,  or  protectors,  and  that  relatives  are  so  allotted 
as  to  acco77ipany  each  other,  and  that  even  friends  are  not 
separated  unless  unavoidable.  The  employer  obtaining 
a  receipt  for  the  allotment  fees  from  the  Colonial 
Receiver-General,  produces  it  to  the  Immigration 
Agent,  who  then  "  orders  thenj  to  be  delivered  to  the 
said  employer."  This  is  suggestive  of  the  transfer  of 
a  flock  of  sheep,  and  the  whole  transaction  needs,  in 
every  detail,  the  most  delicate,  keen,  cautious  hu- 
manity and  tact.  In  no  carping  spirit  let  me  point 
this  out  to  every  one  interested — to  the  Colonial 
Office,  that  it  may  watch  with  anxiety  the  appoint- 
ments of  the  officials  both  in  India  and  the  colony;  to 
the  planters,  that  they  may,  in  their  own  favour,  take 
care  that  the  men  selected  for  this,  I  may  almost  say, 
terribly  responsible  post  shall  be  conspicuous  for 
integrity  and  humaneness.  For  it  is  a  critical  point 
of  the  system,  that  any  part  of  it  depends  so  much 
upon  the  character  of  the  individuals  who  administer 
it — that  according  as  these  are  trustworthy  or  the 
reverse,  it  may  work  well  or  ill.  In  Mr.  Crosby  the 
system  had  a  man  whose  character  and  position  were 
a  pledge  of  his  integrity ;  and  his  successor  should  be 
as  earnest  a  philanthropist,  as  thorough  a  gentleman. 
It  may  be  a  question,  too,  whether  he  should  not  be 

H 


98  THE  COOLIE, 

selected  from  without  the  colony.  Nay,  in  my  opinion 
it  is  no  question  ;  for  no  man  in  the  colony  who  would 
accept  it  is  fit  for  that  particular  post. 

Shall  we  pause  a  moment  and  regard  a  flock  of  these 
strangers  as  they  pass  through  the  streets  of  George- 
town on  the  way  to  their  estate  ?  Can  we  possibly 
enter  into  their  feelings  ?  Coming  from  their  Asiatic 
homes,  with  their  notions  of  Asiatic  life,  with  the  very 
air  and  mystery  of  that  life  hanging  about  them  ; 
simple  in  their  knowledge,  though  cunning  enough 
in  apprehension,  they  curiously  scan  the  new  country 
to  which,  with  vague  and  ignorant  faith  in  some  good 
to  be  won  by  it,  they  are  voluntarily  exiles !  I  can 
conceive  of  nothing  more  touching  to  a  humane 
sympathy  than  this  situation,  and  I  am  happy  to 
believe  that  it  does  strike  chords  in  the  hearts  of  some 
managers,  and  that  in  a  kindly  way  efforts  are  made 
to  mitigate  its  uncouthness.  Mr.  Russell,  in  answer 
to  a  question  (5388)  respecting  the  acclimatisation  of 
the  Coolie,  thus  describes  the  treatment  of  fresh  immi- 
grants at  Leonora  estate  : — "  I  may  tell  you  the  rule 
I  have  established  in  respect  to  Leonora.  The  people 
are  received  in  the  hospital  from  the  ship ;  they  re- 
main there  on  full  rations  for  three  or  four  days  ;  they 
receive  a  supply  of  soap  and  cocoa-nut  oil  to  clean 
themselves  and  their  clothes  ;  then  a  good  many  of 
them  draft  themselves  out  to  go  and  live  with  people 
who  hail  from  the  same  village  in  India.  The  balance 
are  allotted  houses  on  the  estate,  separate  houses  for 
themselves.  After  working  for  four  or  five  days, 
chopping  grass  about  the  '  buildings,'  they  are 
allowed  to  select  their  own  implement  to  work  with, 
whether  to  become  shovelmen  or  weeders.  Those 
who  go  to  shovel-work,  there  is  a  steady  old  hand 
goes  with  them  to  trim  their  tools,  to  get  their  shovels 
and  cutlasses  sharpened,  to  get  the  handles  made 
smooth,  so  that  they  will  not  blister  their  hands,  and 


IMMIGRATION  ORGANISATION,  ETC.        99 

he  looks  after  them  and  assists  them  to  learn  tneir 
work.  They  are  found  in  full  rations ;  every  man 
gets  his  rations  before  he  goes  out  in  the  morning; 
they  are  given  to  them  as  to  ordinary  patients  in  the 
hospital.  I  hand  in  a  bundle  of  orders  on  the  estate's 
store  for  the  provisions  that  are  supplied  to  a  gang  of 
twenty-five  to  twenty-nine — sometimes  a  few  go  into 
the  hospital,  and  then,  perhaps,  there  would  be  only 
twenty-five.  They  go  off  the  list  by  degrees,  and 
till  then  food  is  supplied  them  like  ordinary  patients 
in  the  hospital.  At  the  end  of  six  weeks  I  give  them 
notice  that  so  many  have  to  be  put  on  their  own 
hook  entirely.  The  weaker  are  allowed  to  continue  a 
week  or  two  longer.  Some  of  them  never  get  off 
the  pension-list ;  two  or  three  become  permanent 
pensioners,  and  are  always  either  in  the  hospital  or 
working  about  the  yards  and  grounds.  \\.j  ex- 
perience in  a  great  number  of  yards  leads  me  to 
suppose  this  to  be  the  best  plan.  I  have  dieted  on 
many  systems,  but  I  find  that  the  best ;  it  leaves 
the  people  in  good  heart.  At  the  end  of  the  six 
weeks  they  get  their  money  to  start  on  their  own 
hook.  The  best  batch  I  ever  had  arrived  in  the 
month  of  May,  when  the  water  was  coming  over  the 
back  dam  :  they  went  on  the  second  day  to  work,  and 
when  the  roll  was  called,  at  the  end  of  five  years, 
every  one  but  one  answered  to  his  name ;  that  one 
was  a  girl  who  died  of  pulmonary  consumption, 
which  she  had  when  she  came.  They  came  by  the 
Clarendon." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

COOLIE  STRIKES  AND  POINTS  OF  LAW. 

BY  the  steamer  succeeding  that  in  which  I  had 
reached  Demerara  came  Mr.  Des  Vceux.  The 
news  of  our  arrival  spread  among  the  immigrants 
with  wonderful  celerity.  One  of  the  most  mysterious 
things  in  the  East  is  the  rapidity  with  which  reports 
are  circulated,  and  certainly  the  Coolies  in  British 
Guiana  managed  to  convey  information  from  estate 
to  estate  with  puzzling  promptitude.  They  had  pre- 
viously been  in  an  uneasy  condition.  Mr.  Des  Vceux 
stated  that  his  letter  to  L^rd  Granville  originated  in 
the  fear  of  a  general  rising  excited  in  his  mind  by 
the  report  of  a  riot  at  Leonora.  This  riot  occurred 
on  the  2nd  of  August,  1869.  A  dispute  had  arisen 
about  three  weeks  previously  between  the  manager 
and  a  gang  of  Coolies  with  reference  to  some  un- 
finished work.  Out  of  the  dispute  resulted  a  case 
before  the  magistrate,  who  decided  against  the 
immigrants.  Upon  this,  after  some  preliminary  com- 
motion, they  mutinied  and  beat  the  deputy-manager 
very  severely.  A  body  of  police,  armed  with  Enfield 
rifles,  were  called  out  to  stop  the  disturbance.  The 
Coolies,  however,  were  fool-hardy  enough  to  face  them 
with  no  other  weapons  but  sticks  and  stones.  In 
the  use  of  the  stick,  a  long,  strengthful,  and  smooth 
piece  of  Hackia-wood,  they  are  very  expert,  so  that 


COOLIE  STRIKES.  loi 

in  the  simple  matter  of  fencing — as  they  far  out- 
numbered the  police — they  were  able  to  hold  their 
ground.  Providentially  the  commissary  in  charge 
of  them  did  not  permit  his  men  to  fire,  or  a  massacre 
might  have  occurred  with  results  to  the  colony 
and  the  immigration  system  both  serious  and  far- 
reaching. 

This  aneute  produced  alarm  in  the  European  com- 
munity, and  general  excitement  among  the  immi- 
grants. The  Governor  appealed  to  the  officer  in 
command  of  the  forces  at  Barbadoes  to  be  ready 
to  assist  the  Executive  in  case  of  a  rising.  An 
armed  addition  was  immediately  made  to  the  police 
force,  under  the  command  of  the  gallant  Inspector- 
General  of  Police,  who  carries  into  his  hot  work 
preternatural  activity,  combined  with  a  pleasant  boii^ 
hommie  which  makes  him  a  general  favourite  in  the 
colony.  Plis  office  is  an  important  one,  the  salary 
amounting  to  ;^i,ooo  a  year.  I  think  his  semi- 
military  forces,  with  the  exception  of  the  officer, 
consisted  entirely  of  blacks,  some  of  whom  had  been 
privates  in  West  India  regiments.  They  used  fre- 
quently to  be  turned  out  to  parade  in  Georgetown 
streets,  dressed  in  a  neat  uniform,  their  white  pug- 
geries  framing  in  their  ebony  faces,  a  band  of  fifers 
preceding  them  ;  in  front  of  that  a  motley  collection 
of  Negro  dancers  of  both  sexes,  and  at  the  head  of 
his  men,  on  a  necessarily  capacious  steed,  the  stal- 
wart General.  As  I  used  to  watch  this  strange 
procession,  and  saw  the  fiery  sun  gleaming  along  the 
polished  barrels  of  the  rifles,  I  could  not  resist  an 
uncomfortable  questioning  whether  the  system  really 
required  this  sort  of  argument  to  adapt  it  to  the 
reasons  of  those  whom  it  chiefly  concerned.  But  it 
was  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  the  commander  of 
the  band  was  a  man  of  thorough  good  sense,  great 
kindliness  of  heart,  and  endued  with  that  bravery 


102  THE  COOLIE. 

which  can  afford  to  be  cautious.  Some  of  his  com- 
missaries appear  to  be  of  the  same  mettle.  An 
incident  well  worth  relating  was  told  me  respecting 
one  of  them.  His  station  embraced  the  long  jetty 
or  stelling  which  runs  out  into  the  river  at  Pou- 
deroyen,  opposite  Georgetown.  He  Avas  one  morning 
informed  that  two  or  three  hundred  Coolies  on  one  of 
the  estates  had  struck,  and  were  coming  down  to 
the  stelling  armed  with  their  cutlasses  and  sticks, 
intending  to  force  a  passage  by  the  steamer  to 
town.  With  four  Negro  policemen  he  waited  at  the 
stelling  end,  determined  to  prevent  their  crossing. 
The  Coolies,  finding  their  passage  opposed,  came 
on  furiously,  and  the  commissary's  men  began  to 
flinch.  Without  arms  he  placed  himself  before  his 
blacks,  directing  them  to  support  him.  He  loudly 
warned  back  the  approaching  line,  but  the  front 
ones,  pressed  on  by  those  in  the  rear,  were  brought 
within  the  reach  of  his  arm,  and  these  he  forthwith 
knocked  down.  There  is  a  wonderful  power  in  an 
Englishman's  eye  and  voice  and  arm !  "Before  that 
solitary  man's  front  these  impulsive  Asiatics  quailed 
and  held  back ;  yet,  advancing  slowly,  they  forced 
the  officer  and  his  supporters  gradually  to  give  way 
to  the  end  of  the  pier  where  the  steamer  was  waiting. 
The  Negroes  jumped  on  board,  and  the  captain  called 
out  that  he  had  the  hose  ready  with  boiling  water  ; 
but  M.,  shouting  in  reply,  "  Let  go  and  push  off," 
knocked  down  the  eager  Indian  next  to  him,  laid 
hold  of  the  two  posts  on  either  side  the  gangway 
to  stop  the  rush  that  was  immediately  made,  and 
held  his  own  till  the  steamer  was  clear.  Then  he 
faced  the  disappointed  Coolies,  and  ordered  them 
back  to  the  shore  police-station.  There  he  made 
them  pile  their  tools,  and  induced  them  to  return 
quietly  to  their  estate.  Such  an  incident,  if  you  can 
get  the  hero  for  it,  is  worth   more  than  a  hundred 


COOLIE  STRIKES.  103 

riflemen  and  the  terrible  witness  of  dead  bodies  to 
the  might  of  the  Executive.  I  was  told  that  the 
Coolies  always  afterwards  held  Mr.  M.  in  high 
respect. 

"  Massa  De  Voo  "  now  became  the  subject  of  rather 
painful  and  troublesome  appeals.  Going  one  day  to 
his  house,  which  was  situated  in  an  open  field  near 
the  garrison,  I  found  the  rQ9,d  and  garden  occupied 
by  about  three  hundred  Indians,  most  of  them  squat- 
ting on  their  hams  in  that  peculiar  fashion  which,  if 
not  the  envy,  is  the  wonder  of  Europeans.  They  had 
their  hoes,  shovels,  and  cutlasses,  and  were  covered 
with  the  dingy  marks  of  toil.  A  dispute  had 
occurred  with  the  manager  of  their  estate,  where- 
upon they  had  struck,  and  come  down  at  once  to 
ask  Mr.  Des  Voeux  to  help  them.  Accordingly  the 
ringleaders,  who  could  speak  the  strange  lingo  which 
they  call  English,  were  lining  the  steps  of  the  house 
and  occupying  its  gallery.  Each  one  had  his  own 
story  of  some  wrong  or  hardship,  the  truth  of  which 
it  was  impossible  for  us  to  ascertain.  We  could  only 
take  notes  of  their  imperfectly-expressed  complaints, 
either  to  hand  to  the  Commissioners,  or  for  me  to  use 
in  suggesting  questions  for  examination.  If  they 
were  deceiving  us,  and  no  doubt  some  of  them  were, 
they  did  it  admirably. 

"  O  massa,  plees,  massa,  help  Coolie.  Manahee  too 
bad,  massa,  starve  um,  beat  um,  chuck  um,  so. 
Massa  stop  um  wagee,  take  um  wife.  Coolie  live  too 
bad,  massa :  too  hard  work,  too  little  money,  too 
little  food." 

"  Go  tell  magistrate." 

"  O  massa,  no  good  go  mahitee.  Mahitee  know 
manahee — go  manahee's  house — eat  um  breakfas — 
come  court — no  good  Coolie  go  court — mahitee  friend 
manahee  :  always  for  manahee,  no  for  Coolie." 

It  was  a  curious  thing,  that  of  the  great  number  of 


104  THE  COOLIE. 

Coolies  whom  I  saw,  I  do  not  remember  one  who 
expressed  the  least  confidence  in  the  administration 
of  justice.  Had  it  not  been  that  they  came  down 
from  all  parts  of  the  colony,  and  evidently  without 
any  previous  understanding  with  each  other,  I  should 
have  suspected  this  extraordinary  unanimity  to  have 
been  the  result  of  conspiracy.  But  it  was  too  wide- 
spread for  a  general  arrangement  to  have  been  prac- 
ticable. I  did  not  jump  from  this  to  the  conclusion 
in  my  own  mind  that  justice  in  British  Guiana  was 
not  only  blind,  but  deaf  of  one  ear,  but  I  was  satisfied 
that  the  immigrants  themselves  were  possessed  with 
that  notion.  The  opinion  I  thus  formed  has  been 
confirmed  by  the  Commissioners.  They  speak  of  it 
as  an  "unquestionable  and  most  important  fact  that 
the  Coolies  do  consider  the  relations  of  the  magis- 
trates with  the  managers  too  intimate,  and  have  no  con- 
fidence in  their  impartial  administration  of  justice." 
I  wish  that  the  Commissioners  had  reflected  upon  this 
fact  with  more  emphasis,  as  I  shall  take  occasion 
hereafter  to  show  they  might  properly  have  done. 
In  looking  about  to  account  for  this  feeling,  two  or 
three  circumstances — in  themselves  trivial  and  inno- 
cent enough — gave  a  clue  to  the  reason  for  it.  Some 
of  the  magistrates'  courts  are  at  a  distance  from  their 
homes,  and  always  near  the  estates  from  which  the 
cases  come.  There  are  no  hotels.  The  only  decent 
houses  are  those  of  the  managers.  They  are  hospi- 
table, and  glad  to  have  at  table  an  entertaining  guest. 
So  that,  as  the  Coolies  said,  the  magistrate  break- 
fasted, dined,  or  lunched  with  the  man  who  was 
either  the  chief  prosecutor  or  the  defendant  in  nearly 
all  the  cases  before  the  court.  The  quick  minds  of 
the  Asiatics  instantly  fasten  on  this  ;  and  when  they 
find  the  magistrate  deciding  in  favour  of  the  manager, 
they  put  down  the  breakfast  and  the  decision  as 
cause  and  effect.     The  purest  administration  of  jus- 


COOLIE  STRIKES.  105 

tice  could  not  dissipate  such  a  suspicion  as  that,  nor, 
to  be  candid,  afford  to  overlook  it.  And  in  dealing- 
with  Asiatics  we  must  needs  use  some  tact  to  disarm 
Asiatic  prejudices.  Dr.  Shier,  the  Medical  Inspector, 
felt  this  so  strongly,  that  he  made  it  a  rule  never  to 
accept  a  manager's  hospitality,  and  travelled  about 
British  Guiana  like  a  "  casual,"  swinging  his  ham- 
mock in  police-stations  or  chapels.  The  Commis- 
sioners themselves,  in  the  course  of  their  proceedings, 
when  they  swooped  down  on  estates  in  an  irregular 
raid,  never  partook  of  the  refreshment  hospitably 
offered  them.  Besides,  it  is  not  clear  that  prelimi- 
nary consultation  on  a  case  does  not  occasionally 
take  place.  An  instance  cropped  up  in  the  evidence, 
and,  as  the  witness  was  one  of  the  leading  planters, 
has  a  significant  interest.  A  magistrate  had  come 
down  to  the  manager's  house  before  attending  a  court 
in  which  the  cases  of  a  large  number  of  immigrants 
against  that  manager  were  to  be  heard.  The 
manager,  in  his  testimony  before  the  Commission, 
said  he  considered  the  question  raised  by  these  cases 
so  important,  that  he  had  resolved  to  appeal  if  the 
decision  was  against  him.  I  now  make  a  brief 
excerpt  from  his  evidence,  and  leave  the  reader  to 
form  his  own  opinion  : — 

"I    had   also    seven   or   eight    cases    against    the 

immigrants   for   disobedience,  which   Mr. (the 

magistrate)  advised  me  to  withdraw^  and  wait  until  the 
other  case  was  reviezved.  He  was  under  the  impression 
that  Mr.  Crosby  (the  Immigration  Agent-General) 
would  carry  it  to  the  Reviczv  Court ;  so  zuas  /,  and  under 
that  impression  I  withdrczv  the  charges."  I  at  once 
suggested  to  the  Commissioners  :  "  Will  you  ask  the 

witness  where  Mr.  would  give  that  advice — to 

withdraw  the  charges  against  the  Coolies  ?  Would 
it  be  in  court  ?"  Answer  :  '■'■He  gave  it  to  vie  out  of 
court."    What  would  be  thought  in   England  of  a 


io6  THE  COOLIE, 

magistrate  who  privately  discussed  the  probabilities 
of  a  case  on  which  he  was  about  to  adjudicate,  with 
one  of  the  parties,  and  gave  him  advice  as  to  the 
course  of  procedure  best  fitted  for  his  interest  r  The 
naivete  y\\\h  which  the  witness  related  this  incident 
was  an  evidence  of  the  thoughtlessness  on  such  points 
which  was  prevalent  in  the  colony. 

Our  waiting  batch  of  Coolies  orig-inated  one  of  the 
most  interesting  inquiries  before  the  Commission. 
Neither  Mr.  Des  Voeux  nor  I  was  in  a  position  to 
offer  any  mediation,  which  from  us  would  properly 
have  been  resented  by  the  manager.  We  therefore 
referred  the  Coolies  to  the  Immigration  Office.  Six 
or  seven  were  selected  by  the  gang,  and  went  to  lay 
a  formal  complaint  before  "  Crosby  Office."  This 
simple  proceeding  raised  a  grave  legal  question. 
Under  the  Immigrant  Laws,  a  Coolie  absenting  him- 
self from  work,  or  found  without  a  pass  a  certain 
distance  from  his  plantation,  was  liable  to  a  penalty, 
or  could  be  arrested  by  any  policeman.  By  a  later 
ordinance  an  exception  to  these  enactments  was 
made  in  favour  of  Coolies  who  "  had  absented  them- 
selves on  reasonable  grounds,  to  complain  to  the 
Immigration  Agent-General."  Therefore,  whenever 
Coolies  came  to  Mr.  Des  Voeux  or  to  me,  as  they 
repeatedly  did  in  large  bodies,  we  referred  them  to 
the  Immigration  Office  as  the  proper  place  of  com- 
plaint. Then,  if  their  complaint  proved  to  be  on 
reasonable  grounds,  it  appeared  by  the  law  they 
ought  to  have  been  exempted  from  penalty  for 
their  absence.  The  half-dozen  Coolies  in  the  present 
instance  went  to  the  acting  Immigration  Agent- 
General  and  stated  their  grievance,  upon  which  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  manager  of  their  estate  certify- 
ing to  this  fact,  and  I  believe  stating  that  they  were 
entitled  to  protection.  A  few  mornings  after  some  of 
them   turned   up   at  Des  Vceux's   in  great   distress. 


I 


COOLIE  STRIKES.  107 

The  whole  embassy,  if  I  rightly  remember,  had  been 
picked  out  by  the  manager  as  ringleaders,  and  sum- 
moned to  the  magistrate's  court  for  absence  from 
work.  I  ought  to  say  that  the  manager  acted  under 
the  direction  of  my  friend  ]\Ir.  McG.,  the  attorney  of 
the  estate,  as  good-hearted  a  Scotchman  as  ever  lived, 
who  gave  the  order  under  the  belief  that  the  law  was 
with  him,  and  on  the  ground  that  these  large  demon- 
strations were  likely  to  imperil  the  peace  of  the 
colony.  It  was  not  expedient  for  me  to  appear  in  the 
local  courts  on  behalf  of  the  immigrants,  but  Mr,  Des 
Voeux  offered  to  provide  them  with  a  local  counsel  to 
conduct  their  case  before  the  magistrate.  Accord- 
ingly a  Creole  advocate  went  down  to  Plaisance 
Police  Court,  about  seven  miles  from  Georgetown. 
When  I  mention  that  the  ordinary  fee  for  such  a  brief 
to  a  barrister  or  attorney  is  forty  dollars,  an  idea 
may  be  formed  of  the  slight  chance  a  Coolie  generally 
has  of  obtaining  legal  assistance.  The  advocate 
raised  the  defence  that  the  immigrants  had  been 
absent,  on  reasonable  grounds,  to  complain  to  the 
Immigration  Agent-General.  There  was  no  question 
about  the  case  in  point  of  law,  but  the  magistrate  took 
time  to  consider ;  and  when  I  drove  down  to  the  next 
court,  where  I  found  the  hapless  defendants  waiting 
in  some  trepidation,  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing 
him  read  a  written  judgment,  explaining  the  law, 
and  dismissing  their  summonses, 

I  shall  refer  to  this  judgment  hereafter,  but  the 
reader  may  ask  what  there  was  extraordinary  in  this? 
In  itself  it  was  a  mere  decision  of  a  legal  point,  but 
its  bearing  on  the  general  method  of  administering 
the  Immigration  laws  was  rather  significant.  This 
act  had  been  in  operation  for  two  years.  There  was 
no  room  for  doubt  that  during  that  period  immigrants 
had  frequently  absented  themselves  from  their  estates 
to  complain  at  the  Immigration  Office,  yet  no  magis- 


io8  THE  COOLIE. 

trate  in  th*  colony,  so  far  as  we  could  discover  and  so 
far  as  the  Immigration  Agents  knew,  had  ever  given  a 
similar  decision.  The  point  had  clearly  been  taken 
by  the  Coolies,  and  had  been  overruled  by  the  magis- 
trates. Soon  after  the  ordinance  was  passed,  there  is 
a  record  that  some  Coolies  relied  on  this  defence  in 
vain.  I  cannot  ascertain  at  this  moment  whether  it 
was  before  the  same  sagacious  magistrate,  who  so 
shrewdly  discovered  the  correct  law  in  the  prospect  of 
an  impending  Commission.  The  Commissioners  say  : 
"  A  party  of  immigrants  came  to  Georgetown  to  com- 
plain, and  were  sent  back  in  charge  of  the  police. 
Four  were  selected  by  the  rest  as  spokesmen,  and  in- 
vited to  attend  the  next  day,  and  received  a  pass  from 
the  Immigration  Agent-(jeneral  for  that  purpose. 
Their  complaints  were  found  groundless,  but  in  the 
meantime  the  manager  took  out  a  summons  against 
five  of  them,  including  one  of  the  delegates,  who 
immediately  petitioned  the  Governor  as  follows  : — 

"  '  The  manager  has  sworn  that  he  would  summons  the  whole  lot  who 
■went  to  complain,  and  we  beg  to  state  that,  as  your  Excellency  is  aware, 
the  same  is  contrary  to  the  last  clause  of  section  12  of  Ordinance  9  of  1868, 
and  your  Petitioners  humbly  pray  that  your  Excellency  will  give  them  order 
to  the  magistrate  of  said  district  so  that  the  said  cases  may  be  immediately 
squashed  I ' 

"  They  were  convicted  all  the  same,  and  imprisoned 
for  three  weeks.  In  the  meantime  the  correspondence 
went  on  briskly,  and  the  Governor  directed  them  to 
be  pardoned  at  once,  just  after  the  expiration  of  their 
term  of  imprisonment."*  It  is  utter  nonsense,  I 
would  frankly  say,  for  a  society  in  which  such 
anomalies  occur  to  attempt,  on  the  menace  of  in- 
vestigation, to  play  the  part  of  injured  innocents. 
It  does  them  more  h#irm  than  good.  This  and 
other  instances  led  me  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
provision  should  be  made  to  afford  free  legal  assist- 

*  Report,  &c.,  par.  491. 


COOLIE  STRIKES.  109 

ance  to  the  Coolies  in  all  cases  of  importance.  The 
inordinate  expense  of  law  in  British  Guiana,  the 
intricacy  of  many  questions  arising  out  of  the  Immi- 
gration Ordinances,  and  his  indifferent  knowledge  of 
English,  throw  the  balances  in  a  court  of  justice 
heavily  against  the  Coolie.  Were  a  certain  sum 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Immigration  Agent- 
General  for  securing  legal  advice  at  his  discretion,  or 
were  a  sufficient  number  of  legal  practitioners  ap- 
pointed in  the  various  districts  to  be  protectors  of 
immigrants,  and  to  render  free  assistance  in  such 
cases  as  seemed  reasonably  to  require  it,  a  long  step 
would  be  taken  towards  allaying  Coolie  prejudices 
and  suspicions.  A  similar  suggestion  was  made  by 
Mr.  Yewens,  an  experienced  clerk  to  one  of  the  magis- 
trates, who  was  examined  before  the  Commission. 

But  the  question  thus  raised  not  only  affected  the 
magistrates,  it  touched  the  police.  The  ordinance 
afforded  protection  to  the  Coolie  en  route  for  that 
haven,  "  Crosby  Office."  Before  the  decision,  the 
police  did  not  appear  to  have  regarded  the  proviso, 
if  indeed  it  was  known  to  them.  Immigrants  were 
constantly  stopped  and  sent  home,  though  occasion- 
ally forwarded  to  the  office.  After  the  decision  the 
Inspector-General  ordered  the  police  to  accompany 
to  the  office  persons  who  desired  to  go  there  to 
complain.  The  right  is  a  valuable  one,  and  should 
be  jealously  guarded  by  the  Governor  and  the 
Immigration  Agents.  But  it  ought  to  be  restricted 
within  reasonable  bounds.  Striking  in  large  gangs 
and  forsaking  work  for  a  long  tramp  to  town  is  as 
injurious  to  the  interest  of  the  Coolies  as  of  their 
masters,  and  ought  to  be  strictly  forbidden.  Two  or 
three  at  most  would  in  all  cases  be  sufficient  to 
represent  a  grievance  at  the  office.  The  difficulty 
suggested  by  the  immigrants  was  that  the  messen- 
gers  became   marked   men,  and   were   likely  to   be 


no  THE  COOLIE, 

persecuted,  whereas  if  all  came  down  together  the 
danger  was  distributed.  But  I  think  all  these  diffi- 
culties would  give  way,  and  more  general  content 
ensue,  if  facilities  were  afforded  to  these  poor  people 
to  vent  their  grievances,  both  by  frequent  visits 
of  the  sub-agents  to  the  estates,  and  by  establishing 
district  agencies  of  the  Immigration  Office,  where 
complaints  should  be  received.  At  first  this  would 
give  considerable  trouble  to  the  employers  ;  but  as 
the  Coolies  began  to  discover  the  uselessness  of 
carr^ang  trifling  or  untrue  stories  to  the  agents,  they 
would  settle  down  more  quietly,  and  the  planter 
would  reap  the  benefit  of  a  more  liberal  policy.  They 
are  like  a  lot  of  children,  and  half  the  tact  of  managing 
consists  in  humouring  them. 

I  ought  to  mention  a  happy  trait  in  these  particular 
immigrants.  Not  long  after  the  case  was  decided 
in  their  favour  they  came  down  to  Des  Voeux  and 
offered  to  repay  the  money  he  had  given  them  to 
secure  the  advocate.  They  had  made  it  up  among 
themselves  by  a  general  subscription,  because  they 
*'  did  not  want  massa  to  lose  the  money  for  them." 

One  Sunday  morning,  about  the  time  when  George- 
town streets  were  swarming  with  polished  ebony 
faces  and  startling  mischances  of  colours  en  route  for 
the  Cathedral,  J\lr.  Des  Voeux  came  over  to  me  in  a 
hurr}^  to  say  that  he  had  been  sent  for  to  meet  a  band 
of  Coolies  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  A  couple 
of  hundred  had  come  down  the  shore  dam  during  the 
night,  bearing  a  dead  body  which  they  wished  to 
show  to  him.  There  seemed  to  be  nothing  for  it  but 
to  go,  and  before  long  four  sturdy  blacks  were  pulling 
us  away  for  Pouderoyen  from  the  police  stelling.  We 
arrived  just  as  the  magistrate  who  had  opened  the 
inquest  and  adjourned  it  was  going  away.  K  post- 
mortem had  been  held,  and  the  body  required  to  be 
buried  immediately.    The  crowd  was  a  crowd  to  look 


COOLIE  STRIKES,  in 

at — men  and  women,  with  children  in  arms,  all 
dusty,  toil-worn  creatures — and  I  did  inspect  it  sadly. 
Twelve  miles  had  they  come,  in  solemn  procession, 
through  the  still,  dark,  hot  night,  like  "  John  Brown's 
soul  marching  on  !  "  bearing  with  them  their  ghastly 
burthen.  And  the  reason  of  it  ?  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  day  before,  the  dead  man,  who  was  employed 
about  the  manager's  stables,  had,  in  altercation  with 
a  black  horse-keeper,  been  struck  and  killed.  I  have 
already  mentioned  how  easily  the  Indians  die  under 
punishment  or  the  influence  of  their  own  rage.  The 
Coolies  on  the  estate  collected  in  some  excitement, 
and  their  story  was,  that  when  the  manager  heard  of 
it  he  had  said,  "  Ah !  another  foul  chicken  dead ; " 
and  had  ordered  the  sick-nurse  to  inject  some  spirits 
into  the  body,  in  order  that  it  might  appear  at  the 
inquest  that  the  deceased  had  been  drunk.  Upon 
this  the  Coolies  seized  the  body,  and  placing  it  on  a 
bamboo  couch,  brought  it  down  to  "  Massa  De  Voo." 
This  was  their  story,  afterwards  totally  denied  at  the 
inquest  by  the  manager  himself,  who  was  at  the  time 
ill  in  bed,  and  by  others  who  saw  the  whole  occur- 
rence. On  a  fair  review  of  the  matter,  I  think 
decidedly  the  probabilities  were  against  the  truth  of 
the  Coolie  narrative,  and  that  this  was  one  of  the 
noteworthy  instances  of  a  suspicion  excited  perhaps 
by  some  incautious  word  or  act,  upon  which  they  had 
founded  a  plausible  and  ingenious  story,  one  which 
all  the  cross-examination  in  the  world  would  hardly 
have  shaken. 

Herein  lies  the  very  root  of  the  diflFiculty  in  ad 
ministering  justice  for  them.  The  Indians  will  con- 
coct a  story ;  witness  after  witness  will  state  and 
adhere  to  it  with  rigid  fidelity ;  j'ct  again  and  again 
they  will  be  incontestably  refuted.  What  a  puzzling 
position  for  a  magistrate,  who  knows  the  common  pro- 
pensity of  the  people,  and  who  has  to  balance  between 


112  THE  COOLIE. 

numbers  of  half-credible  Indian  witnesses  and  one  or 
two  white  or  black  men  !  It  is  a  natural  sequence 
that  sometimes  when  the  Hindoo  tells  the  truth  he 
is  hardly  believed  even  by  his  best  friend.  Indeed, 
Mr.  Des  Vceux  told  me  of  cases  which  had  come 
before  him  in  which  he  had  been  convinced  that 
Coolies,  having  a  perfectly  good  case,  but  being  con- 
scious of  their  own  bad  reputation,  had  suborned  black 
men  to  swear  to  the  same  facts  with  themselves.  Fre- 
quently the  magistrate  is  thrown  back  upon  the  for- 
mula which,  as  I  have  heard,  used  to  be  applied  by  a 
celebrated  judge  in  Bombay  : — "  Forty  witnesses  have 
sworn  to  certain  facts,  and  on  the  other  side  eighty 
have  sworn  to  facts  directly  contrary.  I  am  there- 
fore forced  wholly  to  discard  the  evidence,  and  to 
base  my  decision  on  a  review  of  the  probabilities." 
Yet  this  weakness  in  Coolie  morals  need  not  lead  a 
judge  to  lay  down  the  hard-and-fast  rule  that  one 
white  man's  evidence  is  better  than  that  of  many 
Hindus.  It  should  make  him  all  the  more  diligent 
in  sifting  and  comparing  such  undeniable  facts  in  the 
evidence  as  tend  to  throw  light  upon  the  likelihood 
of  the  truth  or  untruth  of  the  rest.  But  I  have  been 
forgetting  the  crowd  which,  now  that  the  excite- 
ment had  been  worn  out  of  them  by  their  long  tramp, 
and  the  doctor  had  given  evidence  that  their  "  mattie" 
(mate)  had  died  of  "  ruptured  spleen,"  and  the  magis- 
trate had  assured  them  justice  should  be  done,  were 
standing  awkwardly  waiting  for  the  burial  before 
they  went  away.  We  must  needs  see  the  body, 
which  lay  under  the  police-station  covered  with  a 
piece  of  calico.  The  poor  son  of  toil  lay  silent  and 
stiff  and  stark.  Surgeons'  incisions  down  the  front 
and  along  the  side  had  been  neatly  sewed  up.  Upon 
the  face  and  open  glassy  eyes  there  was  fixed  in 
death  the  last  glance  of  mingled  pain  and  hatred. 
*'  He  was  a  well-made  man,"  said  the  commissary 


COOLIE  STRIKES.  113 

coolly,  as  he  threw  the  light  sheet  over  it  again,  and, 
just  as  he  said  so,  a  loud,  deep  peal  of  thunder  shook 
the  sky  above  us,  recalling  to  me  with  solemn  dis- 
tinctness that  whatever  the  play  or  paralysis  of  right 
may  be  below,  there  is  above  a  fixed  tribunal,  where 
an  inevitable  and  exact  justice  shall  fee  meted  out  to 
rich  and  poor,  to  strong  and  weak  alike.  After  a  few 
words  of  encouragement  and  reassurance,  we  went 
home,  I,  for  one,  carrying  in  my  mind  a  never-to-be- 
forgotten  scene. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   CHINESE   SETTLEMENT. 

ONE  tide — some  forty  miles  or  so — up  the  Deme- 
rara  river  is  a  settlement  of  free  Chinese.  During 
the  reign  of  Governor  Hincks,  and,  I  was  told,  chiefly 
on  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Des  Voeux,  a  tract  of  land  on 
the  Camoudi  Creek  was  assigned  for  the  habitation  of 
Chinese  Coolies  whose  indentures  had  expired.  These 
poor  people,  unable,  because  they  lacked  the  means, 
to  return  to  their  own  country,  had  attracted  the  sym- 
pathy of  Mr.  Des  Vceux,  who  conceived  the  idea  of 
settling  them  on  free  allotments  of  land.  In  the 
exercise  of  their  usual  industry  and  ingenuity  he 
hoped  that  they  would  attain  to  some  better  con- 
dition than  could  be  purchased  by  the  scanty  wages 
of  labour.  There  can  be  no  question  about  the  policy 
of  such  a  movement.  To  open  to  the  Coolie  the 
prospect  of  a  permanent  land  settlement  after  he  had 
worked  out  his  indentures,  must  be  the  only  principle 
on  which  immigration  can  be  allowed  to  continue. 
The  matter  was  taken  up  by  the  Governor  and  the 
Court  of  Policy,  and  a  large  number,  most  of  them 
Christians,  were  removed  to  the  creek,  under  the 
leadership  of  an  evangelist  named  O  Tye  Kim.  The 
place  was  satirically  named  Hopetown — the  word 
"  Hope  "  being  the  name  of  an  admiral. 

They  were  placed  in  a  locality  where,  during  the 


THE  CHINESE  SETTLEMENT.  115 

first  rainy  season,  they  were  flooded  out.  Yet  in 
the  end  they  succeeded  in  clearing  and  cultivating  a 
range  of  some  extent.  From  a  very  able  paper,  pre- 
pared by  a  local  committee,  to  preface  the  catalogue 
of  contributions  from  British  Guiana  to  the  Paris 
Universal  Exhibition,  I  transcribe  an  account,  no 
less  important  than  interesting,  as,  allowing  for  the 
amount  of  exaggeration  inherently  natural  to  ex- 
hibition puifs,  it  embodies  the  planters'  opinion  of 
the  settlement  in  1867  : — 

'*  The  inhabitants  have  cleared  about  five  miles  on 
the  banks  of  the  river  and  its  tributary  creeks ;  they 
have  erected  dwellings  in  uninterrupted  succession 
along  the  clearing;  they  have  built  forty  ovens,  at  a 
cost  of  sixty  dollars  each,  for  burning  charcoal,  and 
have  succeeded  in  reducing  the  price  of  that  indis- 
pensable commodity  thirty  per  cent.  The  trade  had 
previously  been  monopolised  by  the  Madeirans,  who 
burn  their  charcoal  in  pits.  The  ovens  are  considered 
to  be  a  decided  improvement.  The  settlers  have, 
moreover,  planted  ginger,  sweet  potatoes,  plantains, 
and  other  vegetable  products.  They  have  pig's  valued 
at  one  thousand  dollars  ;  they  have  planted  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  acres  in  rice,  calculated  to  yield  six 
hundred  bags  valued  at  nine  dollars  each  ;  the  popu- 
lation is  one  hundred  and  seventy,  of  whom  forty  are 
Christians  ;  they  are  well  fed,  well  clothed,  and  com- 
fortable ;  they  have  had  but  one  death  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  has  been  but  one  birth.  They  have 
erected  a  temporary  chapel  and  school-house,  of  neat 
construction,  as  might  be  expected  from  them.  They 
possess  three  large  punts  besides  bateaux,  and 
they  keep  up  a  constant  trading  intercourse  with  the 
capital.  The  Report  concludes  with  this  significant 
fact :  there  has  been  as  yet  no  case  brought  before 
the  magistrate.  [It  is  just  possible  it  would  have  been 
more  correct  to  say,  *  there  has  been  no  magistrate 


ii6  THE  COOLIE. 

brought  before  a  case,'  for  the  place  is  very  secluded.] 
The  settlement  has  been  in  existence  little  more  than 
two  years,  and  has  had  to  contend  with  many  diffi- 
culties." 

So  long  as  O  Tye  Kim  remained  with  the  people, 
he  exercised  over  them  a  very  beneficial  influence. 
But  in  a  weak  moment  he  made  a  serious  moral  slip, 
and,  finding  exposure  inevitable,  absconded.  I  heard 
of  him  again  the  other  day  from  a  well-known 
Chinese  missionary,  who  told  me  he  had  since  seen 
him  in  China,  whither  he  had  gone,  after  a  residence 
in  the  United  States,  and  had  engaged  in  some  illegal 
scheme  of  emigration  to  that  country.  Mr.  O  Tye 
Kim  evidently  needs  that  the  eye  of  Bret  Harte,  or 
at  least  of  *'Bill  Nye,"  should  be  fixed  upon  him. 
At  the  time  of  my  visit  to  Demerara,  the  settlement 
was  not  in  favour  with  the  planters.  The  rosy  hues 
of  exhibition  times  had  departed,  and  charcoal  tints 
had  superv^ened.  When  I  inquired  about  it,  they 
shrugged  their  shoulders,  and  said  it  was  "a  mistake." 
From  their  point  of  view  a  mistake  it  undoubtedly 
was.  It  secluded  a  number  of  available  labourers ; 
and  the  natural  policy  of  the  British  Guianian 
Government  is  as  far  as  possible  to  place  labourers  in 
such  a  position  as  that  they  shall  be  obliged  to  work. 
It  afforded  an  asylum  to  deserters  from  the  estates. 
Moreover,  instead  of  devoting  themselves,  as  had 
been  hoped,  to  the  production  of  food  or  staples,  the 
Chinese  had  taken  to  charcoal-burning,  a  manufac- 
ture which  they  perform  with  unrivalled  skill. 

Des  Voeux  had  not  seen  these  people  for  some 
time,  and  I  was  desirous  of  conversing  with  persons 
who  were  freed  from  the  restraints  of  indentureship  ; 
we  accordingly  arranged  an  expedition  to  the  creek. 

On  the  17th  of  August  we  drove  down  to  the 
Chinese  wharf,  where  Des  Voeux' s  invaluable  coal- 
black  Sam  awaited  us  with  the  luggage.     We  were 


THE  CHINESE  SETTLEMENT.  117 

to  take  the  only  highway  available — the  water.  Our 
vehicle  was  a  long  Portuguese  boat,  over  the  middle 
of  which  was  built  a  *'  tent,"  or  cabin,  capable  of 
holding  eight  or  ten  persons.  Our  crew  consisted  of 
a  captain  and  six  swarthy  Africans.  A  young  fellow, 
with  a  hopelessly  flat  physiognorhy,  accompanied  us 
as  interpreter.  The  "  Chinese  stelling"  is  the  agency 
of  the  Chinese  settlement.  Hither  they  send  their 
products  for  sale.  A  large  quantity  of  charcoal  was 
stored  under  the  shed,  four  or  five  naked  Chinamen 
preparing  it  for  delivery.  In  the  shop  at  the  entrance 
was  a  bench  for  opium-smoking,  on  which  lay. a  >^ 
jcouple"  oFfeTlo ws  idiotised  by  the  poison.  Noontide 
— ^Kot  beyond  describing.  *'  Where's  the  ice  ? "  Not 
come  ? — we  must  wait  for  that.  In  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  we  have  it,  and  swaddle  it  lovingly  in  soft,  thick 
blankets.  We  get  away  by  one ;  over  the  stelling 
and  under  the  heated  shelter,  the  yellow  water  glaring 
around  us.  "  Ready  ?  Give  way  all."  The  heavy 
sweeps  tumble  into  the  water,  our  crew  fall  into  a 
quiet  swing,  carrying  us  out  past  the  ships  and 
schooners  and  barges,  then  alongside  the  muddy 
banks  with  fringing  brushwood,  or  where  the  tall, 
strong  moco-moco  weed  palisades  the  front.  Soon 
we  are  out  of  sight  of  houses,  and  only  get  glimpses 
here  and  there  of  sugar  buildings  or  an  estate  stelling. 
Broad,  and  smooth,  and  level  is  the  river — silent, 
with  scarcely  a  boat  to  be  seen.  Here  and  there 
upon  the  mud  stalks  the  white  ibis.  The  sun  glistens 
on  the  reeking  limbs  of  the  oarsmen  and  flames 
ceaselessly  about  us,  while  we  try  to  forget  him  in 
talk  of  England,  or  in  chess,  or  in  some  grateful, 
cooling  drink  served  by  the  imperturbable  Sam. 
So  we  go  on,  mile  after  mile,  hour  after  hour,  the 
banks  never  rising  more  than  a  few  feet  above 
the  stream,  the  imperious  vegetation  bordering  our 
view,     and    subduing    far    unseen     and    illimitable 


ii8  THE  COOLIE. 

areas.  So — till  evening  begins  to  draw  in,  and 
the  river  has  narrowed  to  about  half  a  mile.  Here 
is  the  entrance  to  the  creek — some  twenty  yards 
wide,  a  glistening  current  of  coffee-coloured  water — 
that  strange  ebonised  "  bush-water,"  which  silently 
plays  here  like  powerful,  glancing  muscles  on  a 
brown  arm,  and  anon  curls  and  eddies  round  us  like 
the  smiles  on  a  Negro's  face.  On  the  left  as  we  go 
in  are  high  trees  and  a  foliage  fuller  and  richer  than 
any  I  had  seen ;  on  the  right,  for  awhile  bush,  then 
clearing  and  Chinese  huts.  The  creek  is  deep,  with 
a  strong  current,  and  many  a  cunning  wind,  making 
the  passage  for  our  heavy  boat  rather  ticklish,  espe- 
cially as  we  have  no  keel  to  steady  us.  As  we  entered 
the  creek  it  began  to  grow  dark.  The  gloom  was 
grand,  enlivened  only  by  the  gleaming  of  the  Stygian 
water ;  the  great  trees  bent  over  us  in  grotesque 
attitudes,  our  oars  plashing  softly,  and  the  little,  fiat- 
nosed  interpreter  vociferating  from  the  roof  in  hope 
of  rousing  the  inhabitants.  At  length  he  succeeds. 
To  his  shrill  nasal  responds  a  deep  frog-tone,  as  from 
a  man  who  has  no  palate,  and  we  hear  the  inhabit- 
ants waking  the  echoes  a  long  way  up  the  bank. 
Four  miles  farther  we  arrive  at  the  rude  stelling  of 
our  intended  host,  Lum-a-Yung.  The  vocal  exercise 
of  our  interpreter  was  here  a  study  ;  but  it  resulted 
in  the  approach  of  a  small  lamp  and  some  men  and 
women.  Cautiously  footing  it  along  the  round  trunks, 
a  gentle  hand  guiding  me  through  the  darkness,  I 
find  m3^self,  after  a  devious  walk,  at  a  house-door, 
inside  which  steps  my  conductor,  and  then,  holding 
out  his  hand,  says,  "Welcome,  sir,"  like  any  born 
gentleman  anywhere  else.  I  enter  a  better  house 
than  I  have  seen  inhabited  by  any  immigrant  in  the 
colony.  A  spacious  room,  with  hard  earth  floor,  lofty 
pitched  roof  built  of  a  strong  timber  frame,  with 
bamboo  slots  nailed  on,  half  an  inch  apart,  and  neatly 


I 


THE  CHINESE  SETTLEMENT,  119 

thatched  with  the  leaves  of  the  Eta-palm.  Two  rooms 
are  partitioned  off  from  the  main  one  by  screens  as 
light  as  the  outer  walls.  Spite  of  the  airiness  of 
these,  a  peculiar  acrid  smell  affected  me,  which  I  was 
afterwards  able  to  resolve  into  the  elementary  effluvia 
of  opium,  tobacco,  fire,  and  the  live  stock  in  the 
corner,  not  to  mention  an  open  drain  that  circum- 
vented the  house.  But  we  are  weary,  and  not  par- 
ticular. Forth  came  our  hostess  IMoonshee,  who  has 
turned  out  of  bed  to  receive  us — a  little,  quaint-faced, 
yellow  woman,  showing  ever  so  much  teeth,  and  such 
an  abnormal  quantity  of  gums !  And  here  are  the 
host's  brother  and  his  wife  and  wife's  sister ;  the  wife, 
a  Chinese  Mrs.  Conrady — no  single  feature  uglier  or 
prettier  than  the  rest.  I  wished  I  could  glorify  them 
or  forget  their  masks — they  were  all  so  gentle  and  so 
kind !  In  five  minutes  our  hammocks  had  been  slung 
by  deft  hands  from  beam  to  beam,  and,  my  mosquito- 
net  rigged,  I  rolled  in,  to  wait  for  dinner.  For  Sam 
is  already  at  work  :  witness  the  glowing  charcoal  out 
there  in  the  kitchen-shed.  A  cackling  protest  indi- 
cates that  Lum-a-Yung  is  sacrificing  two  chickens  to 
the  Chinese  god  of  hospitality.  Another  petroleum 
lamp  is  lit,  a  table  set,  my  bathing-sheet  is  pressed 
into  service  as  a  table-cloth,  and  in  half  an  hour  we 
are  eating,  off  Worcester  ware,  broiled  chicken,  Cam- 
bridge sausages,  Cincinnati  ham,  and  drinking  iced 
beer  and  St.  Lucia  coffee — the  ice  from  Wenham 
Lake,  the  beer  from  Burton,  the  hosts  from  China, 
and  the  two  white  men,  whose  race  has  made  this 
wondrous  conjunction  possible,  swinging  there  in 
aboriginal  South  American  hammocks.  Was  not 
that  worth  a  thought  r 

After  dinner  and  a  little  talk  our  friends  dis- 
appeared to  their  sleeping -places,  whence  came 
occasional  tokens  of  parental  and  infantile  dis- 
crepancy.   Des  Voeux  and  I  lay  awake  playing  chess 


120  THE  COOLIE. 

and  conversing.  The  heat  was  trying,  the  smell 
obnoxious,  the  fleas  were  sharp,  those  fowls  within 
a  few  feet  of  me  mighty  uneasy,  the  dog  and  cat 
would  not  agree,  every  now  and  then  a  bat  or  a  huge 
beetle  hurtled  against  the  light  bamboo.  I  almost 
wished  for  the  nonce  the  Aborigines'  Protection 
Society  were  out  to  look  after  their  own  business. 

Early  in  the  morning  many  Chinese  began  to  come 
in  from  the  village,  and  soon  filled  the  room.  AVe 
occupied  our  hammocks,  round  which  they  ranged 
themselves.  Their  demeanour  was  free  but  polite, 
beyond  that  of  any  labourers  I  have  ever  seen.  They 
bowed  or  shook  hands,  cordially  welcoming  my 
companion.  When  any  part  of  our  conversation  was 
not  comprehended  by  any  one  of  them,  a  touch 
elicited  an  explanation  in  a  low  tone  from  some 
cleverer  neighbour.  If  a  hasty  young  scamp  rushed 
noisily  into  the  house,  a  quick  hand  was  clapped 
over  his  mouth,  and  silence  or  ejectment  was  en- 
forced with  ridiculous  solemnity.  We  asked  them 
first  about  their  life  at  the  settlement.  They  unani- 
mously complained  that  they  had  not  received,  as 
they  were  led  to  expect,  assurances  of  their  pro- 
perty in  the  land,  and  that  the  privilege  originally 
accorded  to  them  of  cutting  wood  for  charcoal  free 
along  their  own  side  of  the  stream  was  now  denied 
to  them.  They  were  shrewdly  suspicious  ;  attributing 
this  to  the  fact  that  an  official,  a  member  of  the 
Court  of  Policy,  owned  the  land  on  the  other  side 
of  the  creek,  whence  they  were  now  obliged  to  obtain 
the  wood,  paying  him  a  royalty.  They  knew  all 
about  the  Commission,  and  were  e'agerly  looking 
for  some  beneficial  result  from  its  labours — an  ex- 
pectation I  grieved  to  be  forced  to  stifle.  They 
evidently  desired  to  be  sent  back  to  their  own 
country.  Some  assured  us  that  this  had  been  pro- 
mised to  them  in  China  at  the  time  of  enlistment, 


THE  CHINESE  SETTLEMENT,  121 

though  it  was  contrary  to  the  terms  authorised  by 
the  colony.  One  man,  who  had  been  many  years 
absent  from  China,  told  us  he  had  left  a  wife  and 
children  there  in  the  expectation  of  returning  to 
them.  He  had  never  heard  of  them  since.  As  this 
was  translated  to  us  others  nodded  their  heads,  in 
confirmation  from  their  own  experience.  To  me  this 
was  inexpressibly  sad. 

Selecting  the  most  intelligent,  we  asked  him  to 
"tell  his  story."  There  was  instant  silence  in  the 
crowd,  and  they  listened  eagerly  as  sentence  after 
sentence  was  transposed  into  English  by  the  inter- 
preter. 

"  In  n^y  own  country  I  was  a  schoolmaster.  I  was 
well  taught.  I  heard  that  people  were  going  to 
Demerary,  and  I  was  asked  to  go.  Agent  told  me 
it  was  a  nice  place — many  of  my  countrymen  were 
going :  over  there  they  had  plenty  of  work  to  do 
—  plenty  money  —  would  get  rich:  food  was  found 
at  first,  and  a  doctor  if  we  were  sick,  and  good  wages. 
I  was  told  the  work  was  garden  work.  I  thought 
that  meant  like  our  gardening  in  China.  I  did  not 
think  it  was  like  the  hard  work  in  sugar-field 
here.  I  was  told,  if  I  came,  I  could  soon  get  good 
pay  as  schoolmaster,  and  I  hired  as  schoolmaster. 
There  were  others  like  me  who  came  in  the  ship. 
There  was  a  doctor,  some  schoolmasters,  some 
tailors,  and  other  people  who  were  not  labourers 
in  the  fields,  and  who  all  thought  they  were  going 
to  work  at  their  own  trades.*  When  we  got  to 
Georgetown  we  were  taken  out  of  the  ship  and  sent 
to  sugar  estate.  At  first  they  gave  us  food  and 
rooms  in  houses.  The  rooms  were  dirty  and  not  nice. 
Then  they  told  us  to  work  in  the  fields.  We  did 
not  like  it,  but  we  had  to  do  it.     If  we  did  not  work 

*  I  can  scarcely  believe  this  is  true,  though  I  fear  the  recruiting  agents 
don't  stand  on  trifles. 


122  THE  COOLIE. 

we  were  brought  before  magistrate  and  fined  or  sent 
to  prison.  It  was  very  hard  for  us.  Some  became 
sick.  "We  could  not  earn  enough  to  buy  food  from 
week  to  week.  We  had  part  of  our  bounty,  but  that 
was  soon  done.  Some  had  given  so  much  money 
to  friends  in  China,  and  the  manager  wished  us  to 
pay  it  back,  and  took  it  from  our  wages.  We  could 
not  bear  it  any  longer,  so  we  struck  and  came  to 
Georgetown.  We  went  to  the  attorney — he  told  us 
we  were  wrong  and  must  go  back.  The  police  took 
us  to  carry  us  to  the  steamer,  and  several  jumped  into 
the  water.     They  were  taken   out,  and   we  went  to 

Mr. .     He  spoke  kindly  to  us,  and  sent  us  home, 

and  after  that  they  did  not  take  our  money  every 
week.  It  was  always  very  hard  work.  Several  of  my 
friends  hung  themselves  because  they  were  starving. 
When  I  was  free  I  came  up  here.  I  want  to  go  back 
to  my  own  country." 

There  was  general  sympathy  with  this  sentiment. 
'Tis  a  very  simple,  uneventful  story  on  paper,  yet  not 
without  its  interest  to  any  man  who  loves  his  kind. 
A  mere  skeleton  of  a  life,  to  be  filled  out,  or  at  least 
covered  in,  by  a  daily  experience  of  plodding  toil,  of 
petty  interests  and  vexations,  of  monotonous  circum- 
stances, broken  now  and  then  by  a  few  days  in 
hospital — all  in  a  strange  land.  You  may  see  here 
how,  without  active  cruelty,  with  a  careful  and  even 
honest  attention  to  the  legal  responsibilities  of  his 
relation  to  the  labourer  on  the  part  of  the  employer, 
there  may  yet  be  felt  a  wanting  something  to  fill  up 
the  balance  of  equity,  and  its  consequent  mutuality  of 
good-will.  This  immigrant  relation  should  not  only 
be  looked  upon  as  one  of  pure  contract ;  if  anything, 
it  is  more  like  that  of  the  ancient  patriarchal  times — 
like  that  of  Abraham  and  his  servants.  No  legal 
adjustments  can  make  it  a  happy  one  unless  there  is 
conjoined  with  them,  on  the  side  of  the  employer,  a 


THE  CHINESE  SETTLEMENT.  123 

spirit  of  generosity  and  of  half-parental  kindliness. 
There  was  a  gentleman  in  Demerara  of  whom  it  was 
said  that  he  had  rarely  if  ever  brought  an  immigrant 
into  court.  The  Commissioners  speak  markedly  of 
the  superior  independent  bearing  of  his  Coolies. 
Mr.  Clementson's  name  deserv^es  honourable  men- 
tion. A  number  of  such  men  would  infuse  into 
Guianian  society  a  spirit  which  I  should  conceive  to 
be  more  effectual  than  any  law.  This  might  be 
fostered  by  an  able  and  genial  Governor,  and  by  a 
body  of  local  officials  who  were,  like  the  chivalry  of 
old,  sans  peur  et  sans  rcproche. 

At  noon  I  walked  some  distance  through  the  settle- 
ment. The  gardens  and  the  cultivation  about  most 
of  the  houses  were  neatly  kept,  the  houses  were 
generally  good  and  clean,  the  charcoal  furnaces  ad- 
mirably made,  and  all  in  operation.  My  conclusion 
was  that  the  Chinese  I  saw  were  better  off  than  those 
on  the  estates.  I  was  informed,  however,  that  the 
whole  village  was  not  so  flourishing,  that  indeed  in 
som.e  parts  there  was  much  distress.  The  dreadful 
heat  forbade  a  lengthened  investigation.  I  give  the 
opinion  with  reserve,  but  it  seemed  to  me  the  experi- 
ment has  not  been  fairly  carried  out,  and  that  if  fairly 
carried  out  in  a  more  convenient  locality  it  would  be 
more  successful.  The  Commissioners  also  visited 
the  place,  and  speak  favourably  of  the  scheme  of  land 
settlement,  not  only  in  this  case,  but  as  a  general 
matter  of  policy,  though  they  are  doubtful  about  the 
locality.  These  Chinese,  they  say,  "  are  somewhat 
too  far  from  Georgetown,  and,  in  consequence,  from 
the  support  of  civilising  associations  and  rules  ;  but 
that  of  itself  would  not  lead  us  to  despair  of  the  future 
of  Hopetown,  if  some  means  could  be  devised  to  give 
them  a  better  chance  as  cultivators." 

After  listening  all  day  to  strange  stories,  we  took 
advantage  of  the  tide  towards  midnight,  and  bidding 


124  THE  COOLIE. 

g"ood-bye  to  our  generous  host  and  hostess,  whom  I 
shall  ever  gratefully  remember,  we  pushed  off  into 
the  gloom — sweeping  down  the  rapid  and  tortuous 
stream,  with  no  small  risk,  till  we  reached  the  safe 
bosom  of  the  calmer  river.  Though  the  thermometer 
was  75^*  or  so,  we  were  obliged  to  wrap  up  to  keep 
off  a  chill ;  nevertheless  symptoms  of  the  wretched 
fever  of  the  colony  drove  me  next  afternoon  to  the 
doctor. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A    CATTLE    FARM. 

DURING  the  first  week  in  August,  the  skies 
meanwhile  weeping  fiercely  several  times  every 
twenty-four  hours,  I  accompanied  a  party,  by  the 
invitation  of  its  hospitable  and  ever-pleasant  agent, 
Mr.  Godfrey,  to  the  Drill  Farm.  A  favourite  trip  is 
this  to  such  gentlemen  of  the  colony  as  are  lucky 
enough  to  be  on  good  terms  with  my  host.  The  Drill 
Farm  is  a  great  cattle  farm,  situated  some  distance 
from  Georgetown,  towards  Berbice,  and,  as  one  of  the 
exceptional  industries  of  British  Guiana,  a  brief 
description  may  not  be  unwelcome. 

Up  at  six,  and  soon  after  rattling  along  with 
R.  T.  H.  to  the  railway  station.  For  Demerara  has 
a  railway  some  fourteen  or  fifteen  miles  long,  running 
past  a  few  villages  to  the  creek  of  Mahaica.  Our 
party  soon  collects  ;  more  are  to  be  picked  up  further 
on.  The  "  cars  "  are  not  much  larger  than  those 
which  run  on  city  tramways,  and  of  similar  construc- 
tion ;  that  is,  with  the  seats  along  the  side  and  on  the 
top  for  those  who  can  bear  the  sun.  As  it  is  early, 
we  chose  the  open  air.  We  are  soon  shrieking  and 
bumping  across  the  flat  country,  the  only  engineer- 
ing difliculties  having  arisen  out  of  the  necessity  for 
wooden  bridges  over  the  canals,  as  they  occur  every 
hundred  yards  or  so.     Our  engineer  and  stokers  are 


126  THE  COOLIE. 

blacks — reckless  imps  enough — and  certainly,  had  I 
not  known  there  was  soft  marsh  on  either  side  of  the 
way,  I  should  have  felt  some  nervousness  as  our 
vehicle  swoing  and  oscillated  over  the  badly-laid 
road.  What  salamanders  those  drivers  must  be ! 
Our  progress  was  enlivened  by  continual  whistling 
to  warn  off  parties  of  Coolies  or  Negroes,  who  found 
this  the  shortest  and  most  agreeable  way  to  George- 
town, the  hair-breadth  escapes  of  some  of  these  at  the 
bridges  giving  us  an  amount  of  excitement  calculated 
to  allay  the  sense  of  danger  to  ourselves. 

At  Victoria  village,  on  the  little  platform,  beamed 
on  us  from  under  his  puggery  the  cheery  face  of  the 
Inspector-General  of  Police.  He  was  not  waiting  to 
arrest  us,  but  was  there  with  Mr.  ]\I.,  the  sti- 
pendiary magistrate  of  the  district,  to  lead  us  into 
temptation.  The  3'oung  Wesleyan  minister  on  the 
roof  looked  at  us  curiously  when  we  were  solemnly 
summoned  into  the  "waiting-room,"  and  the  door 
was  closed.  A  brisk  Negro  then  produced  a  bucket 
of  ice,  an  American  ice  "  pitcher,"  and  the  materials 
for  a  gigantic  "  swizzle,"  which  the  practised  hand  of 
the  Inspector-General,  wielding  his  implement — the 
swizzle-stick — with  greater  skill  than  he  ever  wielded 
his  general's  staff,  soon  turned  out  frosty  and  frothy, 
sputtering  and  trembling  to  get  into  one's  mouth. 
All  this  was  going  on  regardless  of  the  passengers 
or  the  time-table.  The  guard,  who  put  his  head  and 
his  watch  in  at  the  door  in  a  remonstrating  attitude, 
was  forthwith  collared  and  experimented  upon  with 
the  same  delicious  medicine.  This  was  the  morning 
refresher,  not  a  little  needful,  since  we  should  not 
reach  our  breakfast  until  eleven  o'clock. 

Mahaica  is  a  wide  creek  of  deep,  black  water ;  near 
it  one  of  the  Coolie  gaols,  from  which  the  prisoners 
are  sent  out  in  gangs  to  work  on  the  estates.  Our 
horses  and  traps  w^ere  extracted  from  the  train  amid  a 


A    CATTLE  FARM.  127 

tumult  of  water — there  called  "  a  tropical  shower  " — 
and  we  commenced  a  long  drive,  mostly  through  a 
country  of  abandoned  estates  ;  the  tokens  of  Dutch 
industry,  or  rather  of  Negro  labour  and  Dutch  tyranny, 
still  remaining  in  the  intersecting  lines  of  trenches. 
We  were  in  the  police-waggon — absit  omen  !  — a  huge 
basket  of  provisions  nearly  crowding  us  out,  and  our 
beloved  Inspector-General  doing  his  best  to  break 
the  springs  with  that  transcendental  British  solidity 
of  his.  Alternately  we  passed  wild  bush  and  stretches 
of  a  mile  or  two  of  swampy  grass,  the  cattle  standing 
in  the  water  and  eating  the  tops  off.  In  a  couple  of 
hours  we  reached  our  destination,  a  pretty  garden, 
well  laid  out,  and — rare  decoration  in  these  latitudes — 
an  iron  gate,  which,  being  opened,  permits  us  to  drive 
'neath  flowering  trees  to  the  wooden  house,  paintless, 
but  vast  and  comfortable.  Up  the  steps  we  find  a 
wide  gallery  furnished  as  a  sitting-room  and  dining- 
room,  in  fact  the  place  to  live  all  day,  lounging  in  the 
basket-chairs  or  swinging  in  the  hammocks.  The 
Drill  Farm  is  a  bachelor  establishment,  and  only 
occasionally  invaded  by  such  parties  as  ours.  The 
abandon  is  perfect.  You  eat,  drink,  and  sleep  when 
you  like.  The  ingenuity  of  the  host  and  that  cease- 
lessly restless  Inspector-General  are  exercised  in 
providing  some  fresh  surprise  of  delicacy  or  cooling 
drink  every  hour.  Anon,  we  issue  forth  in  the  now 
glaring  sun,  with  guns  under  arm,  in  search  of 
alligators  or  plover. 

In  the  early  morning — not  to  say  anything  of  the 
night,  for  Drill  Farm  mosquitoes  make  the  most  of 
their  very  rare  chances — a  tremendous  shouting  and 
lowing  filled  the  woods  about  the  house,  indicating 
that  the  *'  driving-in "  was  in  progress.  The  cattle 
are  permitted  to  roam  wild  through  marsh  and  wood 
to  feed  themselves  during  the  week,  and  are  driven  in 
by  their  keepers  on  a  certain  day  to  be  counted. 


128  THE  COOLIE. 

Here  they  come,  eoaverging  from  all  parts,  crackling 
through  the  forest,  plunging  through  the  marshes, 
galloping  along  the  roads,  the  closing  ring  of  men 
and  boys  deeply  or  sharply  calling,  the  cattle  uttering 
their  complaints  in  bovine  bass  or  treble.  One  was 
forced  to  turn  out  in  spite  of  himself.  When  I  ran 
down  to  the  yard,  a  mass  of  black  mud  surrounded 
by  a  stout  fence,  I  found  it  full  of  excited  animals, 
leaping,  lowing,  and  struggling ;  fine  English-bred 
cows  or  bulls,  beside  the  lapped  and  hunch-backed 
Indians,  the  wild  breeds  of  Orinoco,  or  powerful  de- 
scendants of  Western  Prairies.  Presently  some  bars 
were  dropped,  and  the  manager,  standing  on  the  fence 
with  pencil  and  book,  cleverly  counted  the  masses  as 
they  rushed  tumultuously  by,  nearly  a  thousand  having 
been  driven  into  the  pen  that  morning  from  one 
portion  of  the  farm.  The  cattle  of  Demerara  are  a 
credit  to  the  colony.  They  afford  good  beef — for  the 
tropics,  and  the  trade  in  them  to  Coolies  is  enormous. 
Great  care  and  enterprise  are  exhibited  on  some  of 
the  farms  in  securing  good  breeds,  and  doubtless 
with  pecuniary  results  not  unsatisfactory  to  the  pro- 
prietors. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  COMMISSION  AND   SOME   OF   ITS   CONCOMITANTS. 

AFTER  a  delay  of  six  weeks,  Mr.  W.  E.  Frere,  the 
third  member  of  the  Commission,  arrived  in 
Georgetown.  By  the  previous  steamer  had  also  arrived 
the  Advocate-General  of  Bengal,  Mr.  Cowie,  retained 
by  the  planters  in  London,  with  a  fabulous  fee,  to 
represent  them  on  the  inquiry.  Let  me  say  here  how 
much  both  truth  and  good  feeling  were  assisted,  and 
how  fortunate  was  every  one  concerned,  in  an  acces- 
sion to  ^Q  personnel  of  the  investigation  so  thoroughly 
high-minded  and  gentlemanly.  The  Government  was 
now  in  a  position  to  constitute  the  Commission.  For 
though  it  had  been  ordered  by  Lord  Granville,  it  was,  in 
formj  an  inquiry  on  behalf  of  the  Colonial  Executive. 
An  act  already  existed  conferring  on  the  Commis- 
sioners the  powers  usually  accorded  in  the  colony 
to  special  commissions  appointed  by  the  Governor, 
but  enduing  them  with  very  inadequate  and  clumsy 
means  of  enforcing  their  demands  on  refractory  wit- 
nesses. The  right  given  by  the  colonial  act  to  prose- 
cute or  sue  such  persons  before  the  Superior  Court, 
which  was  empowered  to  punish  them  by  fine,  was 
clearly  illusory  in  its  constraint  on  wealthy  planters. 
The  Commissioners  very  firmly  insisted  on  receiving 
additional  powers  :  the  Court  of  Policy  was  therefore 
summoned  on  Thursday,  August  25th,  and   in  one 

K 


130  THE  COOLIE. 

da}'  passed  through  all  its  stages  a  bill  conferring 
those  powers  on  the  Commission. 

In  the  afternoon,  a  Gazette  Extraordinary  so  called 
— not  that  I  wish  any  one  to  presume  the  Royal 
Gazette^  in  its  usual  issues,  is  not  an  extraordinary 
affair — announced  the  formal  opening  of  the  Com- 
mission on  the  following  day.  It  contained  also 
another  proclamation,  relative  to  Mr.  Cowie  and 
myself,  in  effect  desiring  all  persons  to  take  notice 
that  we  had  turned  up  in  the  colony  with  the  alleged 
determination  of  appearing  before  the  Commission  in 
behalf  of  certain  persons,  but  assuring  all  persons 
whatsoever  that  we  had  no  official  connection  with 
it.  This  unprecedented  production,  I  was  given  to 
understand,  was  one  of  those  specimens  of  weak 
elasticity  sometimes  exhibited  by  the  ministry  at 
hjme.  A  member  of  Parliament  had  asked  a  ques- 
tion in  the  House  relative  to  the  retainer  by  the 
planters  ot  the  Bengal  Government  official  in  a 
capacity  that  might  seem  hostile  to  the  Coolies.  The 
Colonial  Office,  v/hich  was  at  least  aware  of  Mr. 
Cowie's  journey,  pressed  between  the  philanthropists 
and  the  West  India  Committee,  both  with  powerful 
representatives  in  Parliament,  hit  upon  the  expe- 
dient of  publishing  a  disclaimer  of  Mr.  Cowie's 
official  relation  to  the  business.  I,  respecting  whom 
no  such  question  could  arise,  had  the  honour  to  be 
coupled  in  the  proclamation  with  my  learned  and 
agreeable  friend,  in  order,  I  suppose,  to  ease  off  the 
awkwardness  of  the  advertisement.  If  I  acted  as  a 
'•  buffer "  to  any  one's  feelings,  it  is  a  use  of  me 
which  I  cannot  resent.  I  wish,  however,  our  rulers 
would  act  always  on  principle,  and  not  by  spasms.  . 

On  the  26th,  at  twelve  o'clock,  Georgetown^  ever 
hot  enough,  had  worked  itself  up  to  a  climax  of 
anxious  heat.  The  vast  but  ungainly  "  Public  Build- 
ings "   were   the   centre   of    converging    excitement. 


*  THE  COMMISSION.  131 

"Whites,  drabs,  browns,  and  yellows — merchants, 
lawyers,  doctor,  splanters — were  collecting,  while 
Negroes  and  a  few  Coolies  lounged  without,  or 
formed  a  closely-packed  source  of  caloric  and  other 
consequences  within.  The  Commission  sat  in  the 
Supreme  Court,  a  reasonably  large  rectangular  room, 
with  arrangements  similar  to  those  of  an  English 
court  of  justice.  On  the  bench  were  the  Commis- 
sioners :  below  it  sat  the  secretary  of  the  Commission, 
Mr.  Davis,  a  young  gentleman,  native  of  the  colony, 
who  has  deservedly  received  from  the  Commissioners 
in  their  Report  very  high  commendation.  The  temper 
of  the  colony  may  be  judged  of  by  the  treatment 
experienced  by  this  gentleman,  who  was  bold  and 
honourable  enough  to  be  independent.  He  was  one 
of  the  many  persons  attacked  by  the  scurrilous 
writer  "  Fair  Play,"  to  whom  I  have  previously 
alluded.  ]\Iy  colleague,  Mr.  Carbery,  a  young  but 
rising  barrister  in  the  colony,  who  did  good  service 
after  my  departure,  and  deserves  honour  and  grati- 
tude from  all  interested  in  the  Coolie,  afterwards 
endeavoured  to  unmask,  by  proceedings  in  the 
Superior  Court,  a  person  whom  he  designated  on 
oath  as  the  author,  without  any  repudiation  by  the 
person  referred  to — a  principal  attorney  in  the 
colony.  Mr.  Davis's  conduct  on  the  Commission  is 
now  regarded  in  the  colonial  community  as  a  barrier 
to  his  success  ;  but  no  doubt  the  Home  Government 
will  take  care  that  he  does  not  suffer  by  his  inde- 
pendence. I  may  mention  another  instance  signifi- 
cant of  the  tone  of  public  opinion — and  this  I  con- 
ceive to  be  infinitely  more  important  in  considering 
the  Coolie  system  than  any  legal  and  administrative 
regulations ;  for  unless  these  are  sustained  by  the 
feeling  and  opinion  of  a  community,  their  effective- 
ness will  always  be  matter  of  uncertainty.  I  had 
great  difficulty  in  obtaining  any  person  to  act  as  a 


132  THE  COOLIE.  < 

clerk,  or  in  any  way  to  assist  me.  One  coloured 
person  who  was  bold  enough  to  offer  his  assistance 
turned  out  to  have  been  a  compulsory  visitor  to 
]\rassaruni,  the  penal  settlement !  At  length  I  was 
fortunate  in  finding  an  Englishman,  newly  arrived, 
and  perhaps  unduly  careless  of  consequences  ;  for  he 
was  repeatedly  warned  by  managers  and  others  that 
he  was  ruining  his  prospects  in  British  Guiana.  To 
these  matters  I  allude,  because  they  are  of  that  subtle 
and  intangible  nature  that  no  Commission  could  lay 
hold  of,  and  yet  are  more  telling  than  many  facts. 
A  society  the  governing  portion  of  which  is  endued 
with  a  temper  so  inflexible,  can  blame  only  itself  if 
injustice  is  sometimes  done  to  its  goodness.  One 
cannot  but  think  that  instances  such  as  these  are  not 
confined  to  the  special  cases  named,  or  to  a  subordi- 
nate class  of  society.  The  spirit  they  indicate  must 
show  itself  on  many  occasions,  and  through  all 
grades  of  the  community — must,  indeed,  restrain  the 
free  action  or  expression  of  opinion  of  any  but  the 
few  who  are  absolutely  independent^  This  to  my 
own  mind  was  the  worst  evidence  presented  against 
the  planting  community,  taking  it  in  the  general — I 
carefully  guard  myself  from  implicating  many  of  its 
individuals — and  it  is  because  I  think  it  the  worst 
that  I  refer  to  it.  The  prevalence  of  an  influence 
like  this  may,  nay  must,  clog  the  wheels  of  govern- 
ment, thwart  the  administration  of  justice,  and  dis- 
turb the  moral  equilibrium  of  many  fine  minds. 
Could  an  ingenuous  and  generous  spirit  be  trans- 
fused by  those  of  my  planter  friends  who  possess  it 
through  their  brother  classes  of  British  Guiana,  I, 
for  one,  should  feel  more  confidence  in  that  influence 
alone,  than  in  all  the  checks  and  counter-checks  of 
an  elaborate  legal  system.  Unhappily,  the  hostile 
attitude  too  often  assumed  by  those  who,  in  the 
generous  heat  of  philanthropy,  criticise  the  proceed- 


THE  COMMISSION.  133 

ings  of  such  a  society  as  that  of  British  Guiana,  con- 
tribute to  hold  together,  not  only  in  common  action 
but  in  common  spirit,  men  of  markedly  dissimilar 
culture,  taste,  and  feeling.  The  noblest  humaneness, 
let  us  ever  strive  to  remember,  is  not  the  most  suspi- 
cious or  the  hastiest  to  form  adverse  opinions. 

The  Commission  was  opened  in  due  form.  Mr. 
Cowie  asked  leave  to  appear  not  so  much  in  the 
character  of  an  advocate  as  of  a  disinterested  searcher 
for  the  truth.  My  own  declaration  was  similar,  and 
the  Commissioners  then  announced  that  we  and  all 
others  were  free  to  suggest  any  questions  or  facts 
likely  to  assist  them,  but  that  they  were  the  inquirers, 
and  could  not  recognise  any  one  as  an  advocate.  On 
the  succeeding  day  they  began  to  take  the  evidence 
of  Mr.  Des  Voeux.  The  first  sessions  were  exciting, 
but  always  conducted  with  a  dignity  and  decorum 
equal  to  that  of  the  most  august  courts  I  have  ever 
seen. 

The  examination  of  Mr.  Des  Voeux,  whose  letter  to 
Lord  Granville  had  given  rise  to  the  inquiry,  proved 
to  be  of  a  very  unsatisfactory  character.  Though 
some  of  his  charges  were  wide  in  their  range,  and 
others  specific,  he  was  unable  to  verify  the  former  from 
any  but  vaguely-expressed  remembrances,  while  the 
latter  proved  to  have  been  incorrectly  stated,  or  not 
always  to  warrant  the  conclusions  drawn  from  them. 
In  fact,  Mr.  Des  Vceux  had  written  a  very  long  and 
serious  letter,  with  the  honestest  of  intentions,  but 
with  the  least  business-like  of  performance.  Accord- 
ing to  his  OAvn  account,  it  was  done,  upon  the  spur  of 
a  report  which  led  him  to  fear  the  colony  to  be  in 
danger,  without  notes,  memoranda,  or  documents 
whereby  he  could  verify  his  statements.  He  con- 
sidered himself,  by  the  circumstances,  justified  in 
relying  on  his  general  remembrance  of  the  con- 
clusions formed  by  him  in  the  course  of  five  years* 


134  THE  COOLIE. 

experience  in  the  colony.  That  he  had,  to  a  con-j 
siderable  extent,  read  the  state  of  its  society  aright  is 
proved  by  the  Report ;  that  he  was  justified  in  ex-l 
pressing  them  in  the  definite,  exaggerated,  andj 
formal  manner  in  which  he  wrote  to  Lord  Granville, 
hardly  admits  of  argument.  Yet  I  think  that  this 
was  for  critics  and  not  for  Commissioners  to  consider, 
and  in  the  Report  before  me  the  severe  animadver- 
sions on  Mr.  Des  Voeux's  conduct  would  appear  to  be 
beyond  the  proper  sphere  of  their  duty,  and  to  have 
been  more  appropriate  from  a  Colonial  Minister  re- 
flecting on  the  issue  of  the  inquiry,  than  coming  from 
the  persons  appointed  to  inquire  and  report.  When 
they  speak,  for  instance,  in  this  manner,  are  they  not 
commenting  needlessly  on  the  witness,  instead  of 
confining  their  judgments  to  his  evidence  \  "  Before 
proceeding  to  consider  the  system,  we  must  express  a 
decided  opinion  that  Mr.  Des  Voeux  was  ill-advised 
in  bringing,  under  any  circumstances,  a  series  of 
charges  so  vague,  so  sweeping,  and  so  little  admitting 
of  satisfactory  proof,  as  those  which  we  have  hitherto 
discussed.  Although  we  agree  with  him  in  believing 
some  of  the  most  important  of  the  facts  which  he  has 
adduced  to  prove  them,  yet  in  order  to  substantiate 
them  fully  more  was  required  ;  and  we  consider  that 
in  default  of  surer  knowledge  and  wider  information 
he  was  personally  not  entitled  to  bring  them.  //  rvas 
never  required  or  expecteel  of  him  (r)  that  he  should,  as 
he  expresses  it,  *  prove  by  his  own  evidence  the  whole 
of  his  case ; '  but  it  was  incumbent  on  him  to  produce 
sufficient  evidence  to  excuse  at  least,  if  not  to  justify, 
all  the  imputations  and  insinuations  of  which  his 
letter  is  full."  Such  remarks  as  these  I  could  myself 
have  written  with  both  truth  and  propriety,  any 
friend  of  the  planters  might  fairly  have  argued,  or  a 
Secretary  of  State  have  indignantly  affirmed  ;  but  the 
Commissioners  seemed   to  me  in  this  particular  to 


THE  COMMISSION.  135 

have  travelled  out  of  their  sphere.  With  this  diffi- 
culty in  my  mind  it  would  be  dishonest  in  me  not  to 
express  it.  Mr.  Des  Voeux,  as  they  state,  explained 
to  the  Commissioners  that  in  writing  this  letter  he 
did  not  expect  to  be  called  upon  to  prove  it  by  his 
own  evidence,  though  he  was  prepared,  were  time 
and  opportunity  given  him,  to  substantiate  it  from 
evidence  existing  in  the  colony.  The  opportunity  was 
denied  him  previously  to  the  opening  of  the  Com- 
mission. An  application  to  the  Governor  to  permit 
him  to  examine  certain  records  was  refused,  exactly 
as  a  similar  application  by  the  planters'  committee 
was  rejected.  This  and  a  very  serious  accident  to  his 
spine  which  befell  him  but  a  short  time  before  the 
inquiry,  unquestionably  rendered  him  unfit  to  appear 
to  support  his  long  indictment,  and  it  was  an  un- 
fortunate fact  for  the  truth  that  so  much  had  been,  by 
his  own  previous  policy,  made  to  depend  on  his  own 
knowledge  and  precision  of  statement.  For  both 
these  proved  imperfect. 

Still  it  is  due  to  Mr.  Des  Vceux  to  say  that  on  one 
or  two  points  absolute  justice  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  done  him  in  the  Report ;  but  the  discussion  of  this 
must  be  postponed  to  my  review,  at  a  later  stage,  of 
the  Coolie  system  in  Guiana. 

After  him  a  large  number  of  witnesses  came  forward, 
the  principal  being  the  Immigration  Agent-General 
and  sub-agent,  the  Medical  Inspector  of  Hospitals, 
Mr.  Oliver,  of  the  planters'  committee,  to  produce  a 
series  of  most  elaborate  and  costly  statistics,  Portu- 
guese merchants,  magistrates,  barristers,  doctors, 
&;c.,  &c.  Wherever  evidence  had  been  given  im- 
plicating any  person,  he  was  permitted  if  he  pleased 
to  clear  himself  on  oath.  The  whole  of  the  public 
evidence  was  published,  in  very  handsome  form,  and 
with  admirable  correctness,  by  the  Colonist,  their  very 
skilful  reporter  and  sub-editor  having  taken  it  down 


136  THE  COOLIE. 

in  shorthand.  From  this  evidence  I  only  excerpt  the 
amusing  episode  of  the  Coolie  Hulloman,  or  Hooni- 
maun,  which  the  reader  may  take  aim  grario.  Fortu- 
nately most  of  the  Coolie  examinations  are  unreported. 

Hulloman,  a  Coolie,  examined. 

TJie  President — Is  your  name  Hulloman  ? — Yes,  sir. 

What  religion  are  you,  a  Christian  r — A  Hindoo. 

Mr.  Coivie — Then,  if  I  might  be  allowed  to  suggest, 
he  should  be  solemnly  affirmed. 

TJie  President — Is  that  how  he  would  be  sworn  here 
by  the  law  ? 

Mr.  Cozoie — The  Solicitor-General  tells  me  Hindoo 
witnesses  are  generally  asked  how  they  would  prefer 
to  be  sworn. 

The  President — Will  you  be  satisfied  with  my  inter- 
pretation ? 

Air.  Russell — If  I  may  be  permitted,  he  has  been 
my  driver  for  a  number  of  years,  and  speaks  English 
nearly  as  well  as  I  can. 

The  witness  was  then  sworn  with  a  glass  of  water, 
which  he  declared  to  be  his  oath. 

Sir  George  Young — When  did  you  come  here  ? — 
This  country,  sir  ? 

Sir  George  Young — Yes. 

Hulloman — Twenty-one  years  ago ;  past  one-and- 
twenty  years. 

Sir  George  Young — ^You  came  out  to  work  on 
plantation  ? — ^Yes ;  I  came  out  to  Anna  Regina,  in 
Capoey. 

You  were  indentured  there  ? — That  time  I  came  I 
was  indentured  for  six  months. 

Why  were  you  there  only  six  months  ? — The  estate 
"  broke,"  and  all  the  Coolies  went  away. 

Where  did  you  go  then  r  —  I  have  been  about 
Capoey,  working  all  about,  sir. 

Did  you  indenture  again  r — No,  sir. 


THE  COMMISSION.  137 

You   got  to  be  a  driver,  where  was  that  first  ? — 

First  under  Mr. at ,  on  the  West  Coast.     I 

left  Capoey  to  go  to . 

How  long  did  you  stay  at ? — Something  like 

eleven  years ;  nine  or  ten  years.  I  cannot  tell 
exactly,  but  I  lived  there  very  long,  sir. 

Were  you  a  driver  all  that  time  r — Sometimes  I 
worked  in  the  field  with  the  task  gang. 

When  you  first  went  to ,  did  you  go  as  foreman 

or  driver  r — No,  no ;  working  task  gang  among  the 
village  blacks ;  then  the  manager  took  me  to  be 
driver  to  the  Coolie  gang. 

How  long  were  you  a  driver  r — It  may  be  some 
fourteen  or  fifteen  years  since  I  began  driving. 

When  you  left ,  where  did  you  go  ? — I  had  one 

and  a  half  years  in  town  then. 

And  after  that  r — Under  Mr.  McCalman,  at  Farm. 

Were  you  a  driver  then  r — Yes. 

For  how  long  r — About  one  and  a  half  years,  some- 
thing like  that. 

How  long  is  it  since  you  came  away  from  Farm  ? — 
I  worked  one  year  and  three  months  at  Peters' 
Hall. 

And  after  Peters'  Hall  r — I  came  into  town,  and 
stayed  six  months. 

What  was  the  next  estate  you  went  to  ? — ^Windsor 
Forest,  Mr.  Cameron's  place. 

And  after  that?  —  I  have  been  at  Plantation 
Blankenburg,  with  another  Mr.  Cameron. 

Are  you  at  Blankenburg  now  r — No,  sir ;  I  am  back 
in  town. 

Did  you  go  to  any  estate  since  you  were  at 
Blankenburg  r — No,  sir ;  that  was  the  last. 

So  you  have  been  at  Anna  Regina,  at  Leonora,  at 
Farm,  at  Peters'  Hall,  at  Windsor  Forest,  and  at 
Blankenburg,  all  those  estates  ? — Yes. 

Which  did  you  like  best  of  all  those  estates  ? — I 


138  THE  COOLIE. 

worked  for  Mr.  — —  long  time ;  he  had  an  overseer 
named  ]\[r. .  He  came  and  told  me  one  after- 
noon in  the  house,  manager  want  me ;  manager 
treat  me  very  bad,  say  ]\Ir.  Crosby  come,  I  must  take 
bounty. 

I  asked  you  which  estate  of  all  those  you  liked 
best  r — Every  one  estate  is  going  bad,  I  was  begin- 
ning to   tell   all   serious.     I  liked ,  but  at  last  I 

was   obliged  to  go  ;   manager  treat  me  bad.     Next 

morning  Mr. himself  met  me,  and  asked  me  to 

take  the  bounty  money,  and  stop  on  the  estate.  I 
said,  "  No ;  the  estate  no  good ;  one  day  absent  you 
carr}"  me  to  the  magistrate  and  put  me  in  gaol ;  me  no 
want  bounty  money  now."  I  worked  my  full  week ; 
next  week  I  asked  manager,to  give  me  leave  to  take 
a  little  walk  to  Berbice ;  I  wanted  to  go  to  Berbice. 
He  said  he  would,  but  must  have  somebody  in  my 
place  before  he  give  me  a  pass.  At  that  time  I  took 
one  Coolie  named  Ram  Lall,  and  put  him  in  my 
place.  I  told  manager  I  had  put  a  man  in  my  place, 
and  the  manager  gave  me  a  pass  to  go  to  Berbice. 
When  I  came  back  from  Berbice,  I  heard  Mr.  Crosby 
had  given  bounty  money  and  gone  back  ;  so  I  go  to 
my  room.  Next  morning  I  go  to  the  manager,  who 
say,  "Well,  Mr.  Hoonimaun,  my  friend,  have  you 
come  back?"  and  I  said,  "Yes." 

The  President — Is  your  name  Hoonimaun  r — ^Yes. 
]\Ianager  say,  "  ISIe  keep  two  shops,  one  on  the  estate, 
and  one  in  the  village.  And  me  keep  cows.  Where 
you  get  all  these  things  r "  I  say,  "  Me  worked,  get 
them  that  way."  He  say,  "  Oh  yes,  me  know  your 
tricks,  me  soon  learn  your  other  tricks."  So  the 
manager  called  a  constable  named  Louis,  and  he 
carried  me  to  the  police-station,  and  before  Mr.  Daly, 
the  magistrate  at  Stewartville. 

Well,  and  then  what  happened  ? — One  day  and  one 
night  I  was  there,  and  the  next  day  at  three  o'clock 


THE  COMMISSION. 


139 


]Mr.  Daly  loosed  me  on  bail.     At  the  very  same  time 

me  pay  my  money  down,  Mr. come  in,  and    he 

say,  "  My  God,  you  go  loose  that  man !  You  not 
right  to  let  the  man  loose."  And  Mr.  Daly  say, 
"  Well,  I  cannot  help  it  now."  So  I  go  in  my  house, 
and  I  see  all  my  shop  broken  up ;  me  ask  the  people 
who  did  it,  but  they  no  tell  me  anything ;  me  ask 
my  wife,  but  she  not  know  who  do  so ;  she  was  in 
her  room.  So  I  come  to  town  to  the  lawyer  the  same 
day,  and  I  fetch  a  barrister.      Me  hire  barrister  and  a 

carriage,  but  ]\Ir. did  not  come  to  the  court  when 

I  appear  in  the  court. 

/. — Will  you  ask  him  what  fee  he  paid  ? — Me  paid 

Mr. S30  for  the  fee,  and  $5  for  the  waggon.     I 

come  into  court  with  Mr. ,   and  Mr.  Daly  say, 

"  You  must  come  in  court  next  week,  go  now." 
So  next  week  again,  I  go  to  Stewartville  Court.  Me 
no  see  barrister,  me  no  see  manager ;  both  me  no 
see.  So  me  stop  until  the  court  over.  Then  me  go 
close  to  Mr.  Daly,  and  me  say,  "  Mr.  Daly,  you  no 
call  my  case,  sir."  Mr.  Daly  tell  me,  manager  no 
come  to  the  court ;  very  heavy  charge  against  me ; 
rob  the  estate.  Next  court,  manager  come,  and  will 
send  me  to  Massaruni.  So  I  come  into  town  to 
barrister,  to  tell  me  why  he  no  come  ;  and  he  say, 
"  You  must  go  to  Mr.  Daly,  and  get  your  bail 
money ;  the  case  is  dropped  against  you.  Manager 
no  make  out  case.  So  me  go  to  the  magistrate, 
and  me  tell  him  he  give  me  bail  money ;  barrister 
say  manager  got  no  proof,  case  dropped.  But  Mr. 
Daly  tell  me  he  cannot  give  me  the  money  because 
manager  have  good  case  against  me  next  week,  and 
so  long  he  could  not  give  me  the  money.  Then  me 
say,  "You  magistrate,  you  must  make  manager  give 

me    the  money."      Mr.   Daly  say,    "Mr. very 

good  man  ;  he  might  have  you  locked  up,  because 
you  rob  the  estate  ;  but  he  no  go  against  you." 


140  THE  COOLIE. 

Well,  did  you  get  the  money  at  last  ? — ^Yes. 

How  much  money  did  you  get  r — $50.  I  gave  $50 
bail. 

And  Mr.  Daly  did  not  send  you  to  Massaruni  r — • 
Kg.  Manager  say,  "  Take  your  things  off  the  estate, 
and  go  away."  Well,  me  no  place  to  go  to,  no 
things  to  take. 

Why  did  you  leave  — —  ? — Me  left  P ,  and  me 

go  to . 

Why  did  you  leave ? — The  summer  before  last, 

or  something  like  that. 

But  why  r — The  manager  and  me  quarrel,  sir. 

What  was  your  quarrel  with  the  manager  about  r 
Don't  tell  a  long  story ;  make  it  as  short  as  you  can. 
— ^\^ery  well,  sir.  One  Saturday,  about  three  o'clock, 
manager  came  to  my  house,  and  he  ask  me,  "  Driver, 
have  you  not  seen  the  hog-minder  ? "  So  I  ran  out 
and  call  people,  and  they  call  the  hog-minder.  I  ask 
why  he  not  mind  hogs  ;  and  the  hog-minder  say,  "  Me 
got  nine  bitts  last  week,  and  the  manager  say,  '  Send 
to  the  missy.' "     So  me  ask  him  what  he  send  for. 

The  President — I  don't  want  all  you  said  and  he 
said ;  tell  us  what  happened. — Missy  make  cassava 
bread,  and  plantation  hog-minder  say,  "  Me  no  got 
half  a  bitt  to  buy  nothing ; "  so  I  tell  managej,  and 
the  manager  give  me  one  blow  on  the  breast,  and  me 
fall  down,  sir — me  fall  down,  sir;  and  my  head  get 
cut  here,  sir  (pointing  to  the  back  of  it). 

The  Preside7it — Never  mind  your  head ;  I  suppose  it 
is  healed  by  this  time. — Then  the  manager  got  hold 
of  me  by  the  neck,  and  threw  me  down  again,  and 
told  me  to  be  off  the  estate. 

And  you  left  the  estate  r — Yes. 

Did  you  bring  any  charge  against  the  manager  : — 
Me  come  to  town,  and  me  see  barrister. 

Did  you  lodge  a  complaint  against  the  manager  r — 
Yes ;  me  bring  him  up,  and  me  had  barrister,  sir. 


THE  COMMISSION.  141 

What  happened  ?  Was  the  manager  punished  or 
not  ? — No  ;  manager  begged  that  the  case  should  not 
be  taken  on,  and  barrister  consent  to  satisfaction ; 
and  the  manager  gave  $40. 

Did  you  get  the  $40  ? — I  got  something  like  ^40. 
I  cannot  remember  how  much  I  got  of  it.  I  had 
to  pay  lawyer. 

And  you  dropped  the  case  ? — Yes,  sir ;  and  he  drove 
me  away  from  the  estate. 

If  I  heard  one,  I  heard  five  or  six  hundred  of  such 
stories  as  that. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

COOLIE     PETITIONS. 

BESIDES  the  many  deputations  of  Coolies  from 
the  estates,  all  persons  who  were  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  the  Commission  became  the  suffering  reci- 
pients of  many  letters  and  petitions.  Some  of  these  in 
Chinese  I  still  possess,  written  on  all  sorts  of  paper — 
brown,  straw,  candle-box,  cartridge,  &:c.,  one  on  a 
tiny  slip  of  scarlet  torn  off  a  wall  or  cut  from  a  book. 
The  woes  contained  in  such  documents  were  naturally 
unfathomable  to  me,  but  I  sent  them  to  the  Commis- 
sion, on  whose  application  the  government  interpreter 
translated  them  into  English.  Asiatic  ingenuity  and 
craft  were  sometimes  plainly  written  between  the 
lines,  and  although  some  of  them  may  have  been 
based  on  facts,  the  Commissioners  found  on  testing 
them  that  many  were  built  upon  fiction.  We  were 
not,  however,  let  off  with  Chinese  unreadables ;  a 
cacoethes  scribendi  seized  upon  a  large  number  of  black 
persons  in  different  villages,  who,  possessing  a  poor 
smattering  of  education,  and  an  uncouth  power  of 
writing,  ply  a  trade  as  village  secretaries  or  "  law- 
yers." These  /ellows  unmercifully  fleeced  the  igno- 
rant Coolie,  pocketing  his  dollars  for  writing  down 
stories,  the  least  obnoxious  part  of  which  was  that 
they  were  ungrammatical.  It  was  plain  upon  the 
face  of  some  of  these  documents  that  the  writer  had 


COOLIE  PETITIONS.  143 

supplied  not  only  the  ink  but  the  fringe,  perhaps, 
indeed,  the  whole  of  the  matter.  One  of  these  epistles 
now  lies  before  me,  and  is  so  open  a  piece  of  Black 
and  Coolie  hypocrisy,  yet  so  plausible,  that  I  tran- 
scribe it,  spelling,  punctuation,  and  all. 


To  the  Commissioners  of  Inquiry  :  Your  Commissioners  we  give  God  the 
Glory,  Who  pitied  the  Children  of  Israel  in  their  house  of  bondage,  and  sent 
Moses  for  their  deliverance.  So  the  same  God  send  you  Commissioners  to 
deliver  us  here  from  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  We  we[re]  brought  into 
this  Colony  by  our  planters.  From  the  [year]  1845.  By  thousand  From 
the  land  that  is  ful  of  Hindoos  Superstitions  and  iMahommedanism  in[to] 
a  land  of  lights  as  it's  called.  But  we  were  thrown  in  pastures  like  beasts 
in  total  darkness  by  our  managers  on  the  estates,  they  use  no  means  to 
educate  our  children,  they  give  us  no  religious  teaching  but  help  to  harden 
us  and  make  us  ten  times  worse  by  their  evil  examjile  of  Sabbath  lireaking 
and  more  that.  And  not  only  so  but  compeled  many  of  as  on  Sabbath  to 
do  thdr  various  works  Instead  of  stopping  us  from  it.  And  while  some  of 
them  in  the  house  of  God  their  Chinese  and  Coolie  in  the  fields  working. 
Not  many  days  ago  in  the  month  of  October  1870  on  the  New  Amsterdam 
(li.-,trict  on  a  Sabbath  morning  while  the  manager  in  the  house  of  God. 
Several  Coolie  and  Chinese  was  in  the  iield  working — this  is  always  the 
case  on  most  of  the  estates — So  Your  Commissioners  our  body  and  soul 
both  are  in  suffering  circumstance.  All  this  sinfulness  going  on  Because 
our  managers  keeps  us  in  darkness,  they  are  few  Schools  on  the  estates 
but  useless.  Because  those  whom  the  managers  put  to  teach  our  children 
have  no  feeling  and  they  will  not  spend  even  a  half  hour  good  to  teache 
our  little  ones.  And  the  managers  themselves  never  put  a  foot  there  to 
inquire  from  the  teachers  to  know  how  old  they  are.  So  the  children 
"oing  to   School   for  many  months  and  years,   but  they  could   not  tell  A 

in  B. — they  make  laws  to  punish  us  when  we  absent  from  their  services 

liut  no  one  takes  notice  of  our  souls  matters.  O  what  will  be  the  results 
111  the  day  of  Judgment,  when  the  many  thousand  of  the  Asiatic  shall 
. n-e  up  against  those  that  holds  the  light  of  the  Gospel  from  them. 
Whilst  our  Lord  say  Go  ye  and  preach  the  Gospel  and  to  all  nations 
Why  our  managers  and  others  should  keep  it  back — In  conclusion  vour 
<  oinmissioners.  When  you  return  to  England  we  beg  you  in  Christ's 
:id  to  mention  about  our  miseries  especially  concerning  the  many  thou 

:id  perishing  souls — the  Lord  be  with  you — 
Your  Commissioners 
(Signed) 
Your  Obedient  Servant 


I  .shall  not  give  the  names  of  these  earnest  Pro- 
testants.    The  appeal  to  Christian  sympathies  in  this 


144  THE  COOLIE. 

paper  is  shamelessly  dishonest ;  yet,  from  all  one 
knows,  is  there  not  likely  to  be  both  truth  and  acute- 
ness  in  some  of  the  suggestive  reflections  on  the 
religious  inconsistencies  of  Englishmen  ?  I  should 
like  to  take  some  of  those  who  decry  the  efficiency  of 
missionary  work  among  the  heathen  to  the  spot 
where,  side  by  side  with  the  zealous  teachings  and 
pure  living  of  the  evangelists,  are  openly  enacted  the 
vicious  and  unjust  practices  of  men  who  go  by  the 
name  of  Christians. 

Our  poor  friends  who  propounded  this  remonstrance 
to  "  Your  Commissioners "  may  themselves  have 
been  guilty  of  cant  and  deceit  therein  ;  yet  its  rough 
sentences  contain  matter  worth  pondering  by  Chris- 
tian and  unchristian  Britons. 

The  reference  in  this  document  to  the  schools  is 
not  quite  correct.  Where  schools  exist — namely,  on 
such  places  as  Schoon  Ord  and  the  JMessrs.  Ewing's 
estates  of  Better  Hope,  Vryhied's  Lust,  &c. — the 
managers  take  great  interest  in  them.  The  Commis- 
sioners report  the  existence  on  the  estates  of  a  very 
small  number  of  schools.  Great  difficulty  is  alleged 
to  occur  in  enforcing  attendance.  In  the  school  at 
Better  Hope  I  found  a  neat-looking  coloured  mistress 
engaged  with  about  fifteen  children  of  various  shades 
and  sizes.  She  told  me  that  when  they  would  attend 
they  did  very  well.  Their  copy-books  bore  compari- 
son with  those  of  many  a  home  school,  though  I  fear 
they  did  not  take  away  much  from  such  elaborate 
maxims  as  I  found  one  little  fellow  writing  :  *' A  cen- 
sorious disposition  is  a  disadvantage  to  its  owner" 
— a  hint,  perhaps,  that  when  he  grew  up  he  was  not 
to  be  sinfully  unreasonable  in  criticising  the  hospital 
supplies. 

Here  is  another  brief  letter,  selected  out  of 
many : — 


COOLIE  PETITIONS.  145 

TO  GEO.  WM.  DF.S   VOEUX  ESQ.   &C. 

Sir,  I  have  to  Inform  you  that  the  treatment  I  receive  in  the  Hospital  of 

Plantation is  this     I  went  in  the  sick  house  about  this  three  weeks 

ago  and  now  last  night  the  China  nurse  beat  me  very  much  and  I  then  tell 
it  to  the  head  sick  nurse  he  said  that  he  do  not  care  nothing  about  it  that 
the  China  nurse  should  have  beat  me  then  more  After  then  he  took  the 
light  and  burn[t]  my  head  in  the  morning  I  went  and  complain  to   the 

manager   He  said  to  me  he  do  not  care  one about  the  matter  and  that 

If  the  nurse  did  even  kill  me  he  is  nothing  to  do  with  my  affair.  I  therefore 
think  hard  of  this  matter  to  see  that  If  any  person  ill  use  me  and  I  com- 
plain to  ray  employer  and  then  no  satisfaction  give  to  me 
I  am  Your 

Obedient  servant 

his 
Dos  Mahommed  X 
mark 

Every  one  will  be  sensible  of  the  ignorantly  clever 
way  in  which  Dos  Mahommed  manages  to  mingle 
his  facts  and  arguments  together ;  the  burning  with 
the  candle,  and  the  dramatic  addition  of  the  manager's 
oath,  all  cunningly  contrived  to  add  probability  to 
his  story.  I  soon  found  out  that  most  of  the  Coolies 
were  clever  enough  to  utilise  the  swearing  propensi- 
ties of  my  countrymen,  for  the  purpose  of  enhancing 
the  effects  of  their  narrations,  and  that  they  were 
shrewdly  intimate  with  the  national  forms  and  occa- 
sions of  this  national  weakness. 

One  more,  which  any  one  acquainted  with  the 
people  will  recognise  to  be  in  true  African-Creole 
style : — 

My  Dear  Sir, 

Although  matters  are  now  to  the  Height  whether  to  hold  or  break. 
Yet  sti.l  we  are  in  no  way  better  treated  even  now  the  judges  are  on  their 
seat  trying  to  put  down  wrong  and  robbery.  Who  are  we  now  to  make 
our  complaints  to  but  to  you.  You  who  stands  up  in  our  behalf.  To 
complain  to  the  Magistrates  where  is  the  Justice  we  will  receive  at  his 
hands  on  the  Bench  when  he  is  a  faitliful  friend  and  a  Bottle  Companion 
to  the  very  Manager  we  have  a  complaint  against  for  bad  treatment  and 
keeping  our  wages.  To  complain  to  the  sub-immigration  agent  there  wo 
are  again.  When  we  see  him  receiving  such  Hospitality  to  any  amount  in 
Hennessy^ s  or  RenauWs  very  best.  We  say  then  we  have  but  one  resource 
to  resort  to,  and  that  is  in  the  Magistrate's  Clerk  who  we  Uiink  will  file 
our  charges  and  complaints  right  and  set  them  before   the  Magistrate,  but 

L 


146  THE  COOLIE. 

Oh  lack-a-day  !  we  are  deeper  dowii  in  the  ditch  than  ever  when  it  turns 
out  that  the  very  Manager  we  are  then  charging  with  bad  treatment  to  ns 
is  son-in-law  to  the  Afagistrates  Clerk.  The  complaints  will  be  laid  aside 
or  hid  away,  and  we  will  be  told  to  come  to-morrow,  and  when  to-morrow 
comes,  not  to-day  Come  next  week,  and  so  we  are  put  off  untill  the  case 
is  lost  into  oblivion  for  Ever.     How  then  can  we  Get  our  rights  up  here 

when — things  are  in  this  state.     At  plantation Coast. 

Hoping  you  will  lay  this  in  Evedience  before  the  three  judges, 
I  remain 

Your 

Ob  Servants 
three  of  Villagers  &  four  Coolie  immigrants. 

Since  I  have  wrote  I  have  heard  that  the  same  practice  is  carried  on  at 
the  West  Coast,  the  Managers  entertains  the  Magistrates,  and  the  Doctors 
freely  gives  them  plenty  to  eat  and  drink,  so  that  everything  must  be  in 
the  Managers  favour  look  well  to  these  true  statements  my  dear  good  sir, 
don't  think  them  anything  like  lies  or  from  a  malicious  feeling  but  tliey 
are  written  to  shew  you  and  others  who  have  not  the  opportunity  to  see 
and  know  what  things  are  going  on  between  Managers,  Magistrates,  and 
Doctors.  Could  you  but  only  transform  yourself  into  a  bird  with  wings 
and  fly  up  here  you  will  then  see  our  just  cause  of  complaint,  in  mercy  to 
us  try  and  do  us  some  Good.  I  think  you  will  see  at  your  door  about  a 
hundred  of  us  on  Monday  By  the  Train. 

I  believe  I  did  see  a  good  many  on  the  Monday  by 
train,  but  fortunately  I  was  not  called  upon  to  trans- 
form myself  into  a  bird  with  wings,  and  fly  up  to  the 
spot  in  question. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  PENAL   SETTLEMENT. 

THE  only  remaining  condition  of  the  Coolie  as 
yet  unpictured  by  me  is  his  penal  life.  For 
offences  against  the  Immigration  Ordinances  he  is — 
under  a  new  system — committed  not  to  gaol,  but  to  a 
district  reformatory.  On  entering  this,  tasks  are 
assigned  to  him  proportioned  to  the  number  of  days 
for  which  he  has  been  committed.  These  tasks  he 
must  complete  before  he  is  liberated,  so  that  it  is  quite 
possible  a  man  committed  for  fourteen  days  may  be 
six  weeks  in  prison.  The  tasks  are  assigned  on  the 
adjacent  estates,  to  which  the  prisoners  are  taken  in 
gangs  by  the  prison  superintendents.  I  need  not 
again  describe  this  sort  of  hard  labour.  Thecn'mtnalSy 
as  distinguished  from  the  offending  labourers,  are 
consigned  to  Georgetown  Gaol  if  imprisoned  but  a 
short  time,  and  if  convicted  of  serious  offences  to  the 
penal  settlement  on  the  Massaruni,  a  branch  of  the 
Essequibo.  This,  by  the  courtesy  of  the  planters' 
committee,  which  I  desire  hereby  to  acknowledge 
with  much  gratitude,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  a 
few  days  before  I  left  the  colony.  A  hint  thrown  out  at 
one  of  the  parting  dinners  given  to  the  two  advocates 
was  at  once  taken  up  by  my  oft-mentioned  friend,  the 
Inspector-General  of  Police.  It  is  impossible  to  limit 
his  abilities  :  for  drilling  a  regiment,  keeping  a  whole 


148  THE  COOLIE. 

country  in  subjection,  discovering  a  murder,  catching 
a  thief,  playing  a  game  of  billiards  or  whist,  shooting 
a  plover,  inventing  new  "  drinks  "  or  scientifically 
concocting  old  ones,  conceiving  and  purveying  a 
dinner,  and,  finally,  doing  it  the  utmost  justice,  com- 
mend me  to  my  friend,  the  aforesaid  "  General."  In 
twenty-four  hours,  the  planters'  committee  having 
confided  the  arrangements  to  his  hands,  he  had  a 

steamer  ready  for  us  handsomely  stocked  with well, 

I  would  rather  not  schedule  the  variety  and  extent  of 
our  resources  ;  and  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
Mr.  Cowie,  an  English  officer  from  the  garrison,  the 
'*  General,"  and  myself,  started  in  luxurious  fashion  for 
]\Iassaruni,  the  "penal  settlement."  Slowly  we  steamed 
along  the  low  shore  of  the  West  Coast  for  twenty 
miles,  through  the  uncomfortable  swell,  to  where  the 
broad,  smooth  estuary  of  the  Essequibo  opened  its 
mouth  towards  us,  with  two  or  three  islands  dotting  the 
glassy  surface.  So  broad  and  smooth  the  river,  with 
the  banks  so  low,  one  almost  fancied  it  was  flowing 
down  in  and  among  the  graceful  trees  that  reared  their 
light,  feathery  heads  against  the  pure  sky.  The  sun  was 
fierce  enough  as  we  panted  along  on  the  wide,  silent, 
unpeopled  water,  rarely  seeing  a  bird,  only  now  and 
then  catching  glimpses  of  Negro  huts,  or  Buck  sta- 
tions, on  the  low,  yellow  sands ;  steaming  sometimes 
close  to  the  shore,  for  the  river  is  deep,  and  detecting 
on  the  banks  splendid  specimens  of  ferns  and  other 
plants.  Thus  we  throbbed  along  in  the  quivering 
air,  some  thirty  miles,  till  at  length  we  saw  timber- 
ships  loading  for  England,  and  then  an  island  at  a 
fork  in  the  river,  where  the  Massaruni  sleepily  joins 
the  larger  stream.  In  the  distance  we  had  seen  a 
blue  line  of  hills,  perhaps  one  or  two  hundred  feet 
high,  a  refreshing  variation  in  the  flat  scenery.  As 
we  turned  into  the  Massaruni  river,  we  could  discern 
a  slight  elevation,  which  may  pass  for  a  hill  in  these 


THE  PENAL  SETTLEMENT,  149 

regions;  on  it  some  buildings  with  a  flag  flying  at 
the  staff.  This  was  the  Penal  Settlement,  an  island 
chosen  for  its  conformation  as  a  place  at  once  secure 
and  healthy,  used,  indeed,  by  some  of  the  "  first 
families "  in  the  days  of  the  then  vivacious  and 
hospitable  governor,  Captain  Kerr — since,  alas !  de- 
ceased— as  a  sanatorium.  Hither,  once  a  month, 
certain  Commissioners  came  in  their  steamer,  and, 
not  seldom,  with  some  good  company,  to  make  a 
disagreeable  business  pleasant.  We  were  soon  along- 
side the  wharf,  a  sergeant  bringing  down  a  file  of 
policemen  to  guard  against  surprise,  and  Captain 
Kerr  himself,  pistol  in  belt,  there,  to  bid  us  welcome. 
Any  Christian  was  welcome  to  the  solitary  family  in 
that  sequestered  place.  I  was  cheered  by  a  sight  of 
the  first  rock  I  had  seen  in  the  colony,  from  which 
the  convicts  were  quarrying  granite.  When  we  had 
walked  up  the  only  incline  available  within  fifty 
miles  of  Georgetown,  we  found  ourselves  at  the  end 
of  cool  avenues  of  fine  mahogany  trees,  under  and 
about  which  was  the  green  grass  ;  and  puffing  up  an 
indifferent  hill,  which  absurdly  tested  our  unaccus- 
tomed legs,  we  reached  the  large  house  devoted  to 
the  Governor  of  the  colony  and  the  Commissioners 
when  they  visit  the  island.  It  is  a  good  house,  but 
so  rarely  occupied  as  to  be  in  bad  order.  Behind  it 
were  the  strong  stone  walls  of  the  gaol,  an  extensive 
and  well-built  fortification.  Further  on  were  police 
buildings  and  the  residences  of  the  governor  and  the 
chaplain.  Captain  Kerr  was  not  only  a  brave  and 
determined  officer,  but  a  man  of  taste  and  a  botanist. 
Visitors  to  Kew  may  see  some  of  the  specimens  of 
his  discoveries  in  the  woods  of  Guiana.  The  island 
exhibited  his  taste.  Every  advantage  was  taken  of 
the  position  to  beautify  it  with  the  plants  of  the 
uoiony  ;  while,  at  the  burying-ground,  he  had,  with 
the  assistance  of  neat-handed  Chinese  convicts,  laid 


ISO  THE  COOLIE. 

out  an  elaborate  and  ingenious  garden,  terraced  and 
ornamented  with  cement  vases  and  walls,  where 
grew  many  species  of  the  English  rose  and  other 
home  flowers.  In  some  instances  the  loving  atten- 
tion of  the  exile  was  shown  by  the  care  with  which 
some  English  plants  peculiarly  open  to  the  ravages 
of  ants  were  tended,  the  legs  of  the  stands  that 
supported  them  being  placed  in  jars  kept  constantly 
filled  with  water.  Sad  as  were  the  memorials  about 
and  above  which  these  flowers  flourished,  their  home- 
like beauty  seemed  to  quicken  one's  longings  and 
hopes  for  the  land  of  which  they  told. 

In  the  evening  there  was  a  servdce  in  the  chapel  of 
the  gaol.  I  slipped  into  the  governor's  pew,  and 
there,  below  and  beside  me,  were  the  collected 
criminals  of  British  Guiana — some  murderers  in  fact, 
though  not  in  law,  some  thieves,  some  clever  and 
daring  cheats,  and  some  ringleaders  in  estates'  riots, 
sent  here  to  expiate  their  two  or  three  hours'  vicious 
excitement  by  a  seven  years'  punishment.  All  in 
loose  canvas  suits,  with  their  numbers  printed  ori 
the  back.  Two  or  three  whites,  dark  Negroes  and 
Quadroons,  little  Coolies,  with  their  quick,  black  eyes 
darting  about  in  uneasy  resentment,  or  the  stolid  and 
repulsive  features  of  "  the  heathen  Chinee,"  certainly 
of  the  Bret  Harte  stamp.  A  curious  little  chapel,  to 
wiiich  the  incumbent  and  ingenious  convicts  had 
attempted  to  give  some  sort  of  ornament ;  his  own 
part  of  it,  by  the  way,  being  of  a  ritualistic  character, 
too  tawdry  to  be  worth  his  while  in  that  situation. 
Some  of  the  men — there  are  no  women — followed  the 
prayers  and  joined  in  the  singing ;  most  remained 
stolidly  impassive.  I  will  not  criticise  the  service 
further  than  to  say  that  it  seems  to  me  a  painful 
thing  if  the  minister  of  such  a  congregation  cannot 
speak  to  them  from  his  own  heart  some  words  of 
humane  and  earnest  appeal,  and  should  deem  it  con- 


THE  PENAL  SETTLEMENT.  151 

sistent  with  his  duty  to  resort  to  the  tame  expedient 
of  reading  from  a  book  a  children's  paraphrase  of 
Hebrew  history,  done  in  the  inert  and  stupid  style 
assumed  by  too  many  of  the  pedants  who  undertake 
to  dilute  the  Bible  for  infant  minds.  Yet  the  service 
was  impressive,  when  one  looked  round  on  the 
hundred  or  so  of  unhappy  criminals,  many  of  whom 
seemed  to  be  interested  in  its  simple  celebration. 

The  buildings  resembled  in  most  particulars  those 
of  an  English  gaol ;  the  long  carefully-cleaned  cor- 
ridors, the  doors  piercing  the  thick  walls,  and  leading 
into  small  cells,  to  occupy  which  in  that  climate  must 
be  a  penalty  indeed.  All  except  the  most  refractory 
are,  however,  taken  out  during  the  day,  and  em- 
ployed in  various  ways  about  the  island.  Sometimes 
they  escape,  but  they  cannot  go  far  through  the 
trackless  woods,  and  are  brought  back  by  the  Indians. 
They  have  before  now  risen  and  attacked  their 
gaolers,  the  deceased  governor  having  once  been 
nearly  killed  in  a  sudden  assault.  It  must  have  been 
altogether  a  melancholy  place  for  such  a  man  to  live 
in.  I  wonder  whether  it  was  that  which  had  induced 
in  him  and  his  family  so  earnest  an  affection  for 
flowers,  and  birds,  and  animals,  as  some  relief  from 
the  sickening  monotony  of  an  ever-present  crime,  and 
danger,  and  loneliness  ? 

After  a  twelve  hours'  residence,  we  bid  adieu  to  the 
pleasantest-looking  place  in  Guiana,  our  engines 
pulsating,  as  we  went,  with  strange  and  prolonged 
distinctness,  over  the  silent  water. 

Three  or  four  days  after,  Mr.  Cowie  and  I  were 
prepared  for  a  longer  and  more  welcome  journey. 
I  am  bound  to  say  that  twelve  weeks  or  so  of  Deme- 
rara  life  had  amply  satisfied  my  curiosity  and  tested 
my  physical  patience.  Its  flat  and  monotonous  land- 
scape, its  hot  and  humid  air,  its  warm  waterspouts, 
its  trenches  simmering  in  the  tropic  sun,  its   mos- 


152   ■  THE  COOLIE. 

quitoes,  born,  bred,  and  fed  with  relentless  and  multi- 
plied persistency,  its  prickly  heat  making  your  bath  a 
purgatory,  your  nights  a  martyrdom,  its  land-breeze 
like  the  warm  breath  of  steam-engines,  its  sea-breeze 
like  the  baneful  activity  of  a  furnace,  its  fever  days  and 
nights,  and  its  everlasting  sugar — had  reduced  my 
temper  to  a  state  which  I  should  not  care  just  now 
to  analyse.  Yet  how  much  there  was  to  keep  you 
up  !  The  untiring  hospitality,  the  genial  kindliness  of 
the  ladies,  the  honest  bojiJioiiniiie  of  the  other  sex  ;  the 
dinners,  with  their  coaxing  appeals  to  a  debilitated 
British  appetite,  their  ducklings  and  peas,  their  roast 
beef  and  plum  pudding,  their  American  cod-fish, 
English  salmon,  peaches,  apples,  and  pears,  and  all 
the  delicacies  of  the  latest  ice-ship;  the  "crab-backs," 
unknown  dainty  to  any  but  a  Demerarian,  worth  the 
voyage  alone  to  taste ;  the  "  iguana,"  that  tender 
and  delicious  lizard,  whose  too  susceptible  skin  when 
alive  is  converted  into  an  essence  when  dead  such  as 
rarely  challenges  a  mortal  mouth ;  the  milk  punch, 
the  chilled  champagnes,  the  frothing  swizzles — who, 
with  such  a  menu  before  him,  could  cast  an  envious 
reflection  on  the  comparatively  indifferent  ills  of  that 
shocking  habitat  of  his  fellow-beings  ?  As  I  stood 
in  the  late  evening,  leaning  over  the  taffrail  of  the 
Mersey,  after  many  kind  "good-byes"  from  kindly 
lips,  and  through  the  dim,  hot  night  just  traced  the 
uneventful  outlines  of  Georgetown,  left  by  me  for 
ever  I  now  trust  and  then  fondly  hoped ;  as  I  felt 
the  feverish  glow  of  its  wind  and  the  heavy  oppres- 
sion of  its  air;  as  I  thought  of  its  hospitality,  and 
recalled  its  tortures  and  its  dangers — I  was  reminded 
vividly  of  an  epigram  attributed  to  one  of  the  Cana- 
dian Commissioners  who,  not  long  ago,  visited  the 
same  shore :  *'  The  motto  of  this  place  seems  to  be, 
Let  us  eat  and  drinky  for  to-morrow  we  die' 


153 


PART  II. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE     COLONIAL     EMPLOYER    AND     THE     INDIAN 
ORGANISATION. 

I  NOW  purpose  to  review  the  Coolie  immigration 
system  of  British  Guiana,  as  its  outlines  have 
been  clearly  ascertained  by  the  late  inquiry.  Un- 
questionably no  such  authoritative  and  complete 
investigation  of  the  system  in  British  Colonies  has 
yet  been  made  ;  while  the  increasing"  tendency  to 
resort  to  the  crowded  territories  of  India  and  China 
to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  labour,  on  the  part  both  of 
our  colonists  and  of  the  United  States,  opens  up  in 
the  future  possibilities  so  vague,  so  vast,  so  por- 
tentous, that  this  latest  and  most  authentic  contribu- 
tion to  the  question  must  have  an  intense  interest  for 
every  statesmanlike  and  Christian  philanthropist. 

I  should  first  point  out  that  there  are  two  methods 
of  Coolie  immigration,  which  arise  out  of  different 
circumstances,  are  conducted  under  differing  con- 
ditions, and  need  to  be  discussed  independently  of 
each  other.  One  I  may  term  Natural  Immigratioiiy 
the  other  Artificial  Iimnigration. 


154  THE  COOLIE. 

The  natural  immigration  is  such  an  immigration  as 
has  taken  place  into  California  and  other  parts  of  the 
United  States,  where,  prompted  by  the  greed  for  gold 
or  the  energy  of  trade,  vast  numbers  of  persons  have, 
at  their  own  expense,  and  under  little  if  any  super- 
vision, transferred  themselves,  of  their  own  free  will, 
to  a  promising  field  of  labour.  Such  immigration  as 
this  can  only  arise  out  of  some  unusual  circumstances, 
such  as  a  discovery  of  gold  or  the  existence  of  a 
sudden  and  extensive  demand  for  labour  in  some 
place  conveniently  near  to  the  labourer.  It  may, 
however,  call  for  very  serious  attention  on  the  part 
of  a  legislator.  Its  incidents  and  results,  if  it  is  a 
movement  of  any  importance,  may  give  rise  to  grave 
social  difficulties.  The  transport  of  weak  and  ignorant 
people  to  a  strange  land,  the  representations  by  which 
they  are  induced  to  leave  their  own  country,  the  pro- 
visions for  their  safe  and  healthy  transit,  the  arrange- 
ment for  their  reception  on  arrival,  their  distribution 
through  their  adopted  country,  the  proportion  of  the 
sexes,  their  relations  to  the  people  among  whom  they 
are  to  live,  must  all  excite  in  any  government  con- 
cerned the  most  anxious  solicitude.  Such  are  the 
problems  now  agitating  the  United  States. 

But  if  natural  immigration  forces  itself  upon  the 
attention  of  the  statesman  and  the  philanthropist,  an 
artificial  system  of  immigration — conducted  by  an 
elaborate  machinery  and  involving  relations  and 
duties  of  a  special  and  anomalous  kind — cannot  but 
cause  the  deepest  anxiety  to  any  government  on 
which  rests  the  responsibility  of  its  working.  In  this 
case  the  position  of  the  relative  parties  is  reversed. 
Instead  of  the  immigrant  seeking  the  employer,  the 
employer  seeks  the  immigrant ;  instead  of  voluntary 
and  independent  transportation,  the  immigrant  is 
recruited  before  he  leaves  his  native  land,  has  bound 
himself  to  go  to  the  place  designated  by  the  contractor, 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER.  155 

travels  at  the  expense  of  the  employer,  and  cannot  on 
landing  exercise  any  discretion  as  to  the  nature  and 
locality  of  his  labour.  This  system  therefore  on  the 
face  of  it  demands  more  careful  investigation  and  is 
more  exposed  to  criticism  than  the  natural  immigra- 
tion first  alluded  to.  In  considering  a  system  so 
anomalous,  we  are  bound  to  ask  whether  it  is  neces- 
sary ?  What  ends  are  answered  by  it  that  cannot  be 
attained  in  any  other  way  ?  And  whether  the  attain- 
ment of  these  ends  counterbalances  any  inherent 
evils  which  may  be  discovered  in  the  system  ?  Such 
are  the  questions  to  which  the  succeeding  chap- 
ters are  designed  to  supply  the  materials  for  an 
answer. 

I  have  already  sufficiently  described  the  social, 
political',  and  physical  circumstances  of  an  immi- 
grant in  British  Guiana  to  enable  the  reader  to 
apprehend  the  issues  hereinafter  raised.  Politically, 
we  have  ascertained,  the  Coolie  is  nil ;  he  has  no 
voice,  nor  the  shadow  of  a  voice,  in  the  government 
of  British  Guiana.  Socially  he  is  not  only  a  labourer, 
he  is  a  bondsman — using  the  word  in  no  invidious 
sense — he  is  not  free  to  come  and  go,  to  work  and 
rest,  as  he  pleases. 

Now  there  are  several  points  of  special  interest,  the 
natural  order  of  which  would  be  as  follows,  but  which 
I  shall  discuss  in  different  order : — 

1.  There  is  the  original  contract,  the  parties  to  it, 
and  the  method  of  making  it. 

2.  There  is  the  transfer  to  the  seat  of  labour,  which 
has  been  previously  described. 

3.  There  are  the  laws  at  the  seat  of  labour. 

4.  There  is  the  machinery  for  enforcing  these 
checks  and  sanctions. 

5.  There  is  the  condition  of  the  Coolie  in  his  inden- 
tureship — i,  in  relation  to  himself;  2,  in  his  relation 
to  his  masters. 


156  THE  COOLIE, 

Before  I  add  to  what  I  have  already  said  about  the 
arrangement  for  collecting  Coolies  in  India,  I  ought 
to  indicate  with  precision  who  are  the  parties  that  set 
this  vast  immigration  machinery  in  motion.  The 
very  able  chapter  of  the  late  Report,  in  which  the 
Commissioners  review  the  history  of  immigration  to 
Guiana,  will  be  found  at  length  in  the  Appendix.* 
Here  it  needs  only  to  be  said  that  from  the  time  of 
the  apprenticeship  which  succeeded  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  the  energetic  planting  community  of  British 
Guiana  exhausted  its  arts  in  attempting  to  introduce 
substitutes  for  those  labourers  whom  freedom  and 
indolence  had  withdrawn  from  the  market.  Africans, 
Barbadians,  Portuguese,  Chinese,  Coolies,  were  suc- 
cessively and  alternately  tried,  under  arrangements 
prescribed,  varied,  and  improved  from  time  to  time 
by  pressure  from  the  Colonial  Office.  From  the  out- 
set there  wasf  "a  struggle  between  the  colony  and 
the  Home  Government  as  to  the  conditions  upon 
which  an  immigration  was  to  be  conducted,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  scale  of  it  was  to  be  fixed  from 
year  to  year.  With  the  immigration  question  was 
mixed  up,  to  the  great  hindrance  of  a  speedy  settle- 
ment, the  inveterate  colonial  controversy  about  the 
renewal  of  the  Civil  List.  The  object  of  the  Home 
Government  at  this  time  was  to  secure  that  the 
amount  to  be  expended  on  immigration  should  be 
regulated  by  the  Governor,  before  whom  the  interests 
of  all  classes  were  on  an  equal  footing,  rather  than  by 
the  Combined  Court,  a  quasi-representative  body, 
which  reflects  only  the  views  of  the  landed  proprietors 
or  planters.  It  was  desired  by  this  means  to  retain 
in  the  hands  of  the  Governor  the  power  of  at  any  time 
putting  a  complete  stop  to  immigration,  in  case  any 
conditions  thought  necessary  to  secure  the  welfare  of 
the  immigrant  should  not  be  complied  with :  in 
t  Report,  &c.,  H  89,  p.  38.  *  Appendix  C. 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOFLR.  157 

particular,  the  maximum  number  to  be  introduced  in 
any  one  year,  and  the  ports  from  which  immigration 
was  to  be  allowed,  were  reserved  as  points  in  the 
discretion  of  the  Governor.  The  efforts  of  the  colo- 
nists Avere  directed  in  part  against  this  governmental 
control  of  the  expenditure,  but  even  more  strenuously 
to  obtain  immigration  without  limit  as  to  the  places 
from  which  the  immigrants  should  come.  Africa  was 
still  the  field  from  which  most  was  expected  ;  and 
India  began  to  assume  the  first  place  only  when  it 
was  found  that  the  Home  Government  was  unalterably 
determined  not  to  allow  its  efforts  to  suppress  the 
slave  trade  to  be  neutralised  by  permitting  labourers 
to  be  recruited  upon  African  soil." 

This  struggle  as  to  "  the  conditions  on  which  such 
an  immigration  should  be  conducted,"  has  existed  and 
ever  will  continue  between  the  planters,  eager  for  the 
means  of  acquiring  wealth,  and  the  British  Govern- 
ment, not  unmindful,  let  us  hope,  of  the  importance 
of  encouraging  enterprise  in  any  part  of  the  British 
dominions,  yet,  as  a  powerful  and  comparatively 
partial  outsider,  bound  to  see  that  justice  shall  be 
done  to  those  who  are  the  instruments  of  profit.  It  is 
the  intervention  of  this  supreme  authority  in  the 
Coolie  immigration  to  the  British  colonies  which 
renders  the  system  unique  ;  and  which,  moreover,  in 
its  present  terms,  is  the  only  possible  basis  whereon 
any  wise  and  philanthropic  patriot  would  admit  that 
immigration  should  continue.  It  is  by  this  power 
alone  that  supply  can  be  judiciously  regulated  to 
demand,  or  provisions  for  the  safety  and  comfort  of 
the  labourer  be  enforced. 

How  far  at  present  this  supreme  authority  may  be 
efficiently  doing  its  work  will  probably  appear  to  the 
reader  of  these  chapters  to  be  a  question.  In  some 
colonies,  by  the  help  of  efficient  administrators — as  in 
the  case  of  Sir  Peter  Grant,  at  Jamaica,  and  Mr.  Arthur 


158  THE  COOLIE. 

Gordon,  at  Trinidad — the  Colonial  Office  has  pro- 
bably been  able  to  bring  the  system  into  reasonable  ap- 
proximation to  soundness.  In  Guiana,  the  wealthiest 
of  all  the  colonies,  strong  in  a  constitution  which 
confers  considerable  power  on  the  planters,  there  has 
been  more  difficulty  in  moulding  the  system  into  a 
satisfactory  shape.  Mr.  Beaumont,  lately  Chief  Justice 
of  British  Guiana,  and  a  member  of  its  Government, 
very  neatly  describes  the  situation  :  "  If  the  planters 
cannot  dispense  with  the  system  of  government  (in 
the  colony),  they  can  at  any  time  bring  its  machinery 
to  a  dead  lock.  And  as  the  Governor  must  keep 
things  quiet  in  Downing  Street,  the  oligarchy  must 
keep  things  quiet  in  Parliament,  and  the  Colonial 
Minister  must  satisfy  the  West  India  Committee,  the 
result  is  that  fusion  of  forces,  practically  irresponsible, 
which  has  been  so  well  described  as  *  despotism  tem- 
pered by  sugar.' "  That  there  is  too  much  truth 
in  all  this  is  shown  by  the  results  of  the  recent  in- 
vestigation. The  Immigration  Ordinance  of  1864 
alone  is  an  evidence,  were  any  needed,  of  perfunctory 
criticism  at  the  Colonial  Office. 

However,  it  is  clear  that  the  persons  immediately 
interested  in  Coolie  immigration  are  the  planters,  and 
it  would  seem  to  a  superficial  observer  that  on  them 
should  the  entire  expenses  of  the  system  fall.  But  in 
British  Guiana  it  is  held  that  the  whole  community  is 
a  gainer  by  the  results  of  immigration.  The  move- 
ment is  therefore  conducted  by  the  Colonial  Execu- 
tive, on  behalf,  theoretically,  not  of  any  class,  but  of 
the  w^hole  community ;  and  its  expenses  are  met  by  a 
general  contribution  in  the  following  rather  com- 
plicated manner:* — "An  aggregate  total  is  formed  by 
adding  the  expenses  of  administration,  that  is,  of  the 
Immigration  Office  in  the  colony  and  the  agencies 
abroad ;   of  recruiting  with   advances    for  transport 

♦  Report,  &c.,  IT  109,  p.  43. 


I 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER,  159 

and  maintenance  of  the  emigrants  up  to  the  time  of 
embarkation  ;  of  passage  money  ;  of  medical  care  and 
sustenance  at  sea ;  the  costs  of  return  passage, 
claimed  by  those  who  have  been  ten  years  in  the 
colony ;  and  a  sum  representing  the  amount  of 
bounties  paid  by  planters  to  immigrants  entitled  to 
such  back  passages,  if  they  are  willing  to  postpone 
their  return,  and  enter  upon  another  five  years'  term 
of  ser\'icc ;  this  last  item  is  merely  credited  to  the 
expense  side  of  the  account,  and  debited  per  contra,  so 
as  to  swell  the  total  on  each  side.  One-third  of  this 
total — that  is,  one-third  of  the  expenses  of  immigra- 
tion proper,  plus  one-third  of  this  last  paper  item — is 
defrayed  out  of  the  general  revenue  ;  another  sum, 
consisting  of  the  duties  levied  on  estates'  supplies, 
has  hitherto  been  handed  over  by  the  colony  to  the 
fund,  and  considered  as  a  part  of  the  planters'  con- 
tribution ;  the  rest  is  paid  by  them  in  the  form  of  a 
contract  duty  on  allotments,  which  was  at  first  fixed 
at  050  for  Indians,  and  $80  for  Chinese,  and  intended 
originally  to  cover  the  cost  in  each  case  of  the 
passage  money.  To  this  is  added  certain  special 
duties  on  re-indentures,  which  have  varied  from  time 
to  time,  and  in  fact  have  been  levied  in  most  years  of 
late  to  cover  deficiencies  on  the  planters'  side  of  the 
account,  as  it  was  found  to  be  falling  into  arrear; 
and  which  have,  since  last  year,  become  a  permanent 
feature  in  the  account. 

"There  is  also  an  insignificant  sum  levied  from 
Coolies,  by  way  of  fees  for  replacing  lost  certifi- 
cates, and  for  the  registration  of  marriages.  Lastly, 
there  is  the  per  contra  entry  of  bounty  money  paid 
by  planters  to  immigrants  above  noticed,  which  is 
entered  merely  as  a  matter  of  account,  but  with  the 
result  of  increasing  considerably  the  amount  of  the 
colonial  subsidy." 

In  addition  to  its  third  and  the  amount  re-credited 


i6o  THE  COOLIE. 

to  the  planters  lor  the  re-indenture  money,  which  I 
think  a  very  questionable  piece  of  financial  fairness,  the 
colony  incidentally  makes  a  further  ascertainable  con- 
tribution of  $65,985.31  for  the  expenses  of  the  Medical 
Inspector  of  Estates  Hospitals,  repairs  to  the  Immi- 
gration Office  and  Coolie  district  gaols,  besides  the 
additional  burthen  of  maintaining  the  large  police 
force  necessitated  by  the  immigration.  I  have  already 
shown  how  that  "  one  section  of  the  community," 
which,  say  the  Commissioners,  is  the  wealthiest  and 
most  powerful,  and,  moreover,  which,  in  fact,  absorbs 
all  the  representative  element  in  the  government, 
"  regulates  the  taxation."  It  imposes  on  necessaries 
of  life  a  heavy  duty,  partly,  no  doubt,  because  this  is 
the  only  way  in  such  a  community  open  to  a  financial 
secretary  of  distributing  the  burthens  of  government 
over  all  classes,  unless,  indeed,  a  graduated  poll-tax 
were  resorted  to.  Hence,  between  his  actual  con- 
tribution to  the  immigration  and  the  unequal  inci- 
dence of  the  taxation  on  the  planter  and  himself,  the 
colonial  tax-payer  may  well  grumble  that  so  much  of 
the  colonial  success  is  due  to  his  unwilling  contribu- 
tions. The  Commissioners  have  pointed  out  with 
some  force  that  so  long  as  the  extension  of  cultiva- 
tion keeps  pace  with  the  immigration,  that  extension 
— which  means  extension  of  the  capital  which  employs 
labour — is  advantageous  to  the  general  community. 
They  point  out  also  that  the  contribution  of  the 
community  to  the  immigration,  and  the  consequent 
recognition  of  its  interest  in  the  matter,  give  it  a 
control  of  the  movement  which  the  imposition  of 
the  whole  cost  upon  the  planters  might  seriously 
affect.  But  on  what  ground  is  it  possible  to  defend 
a  financial  system  framed  by  the  planting  interest,  in 
which  exaggerated  contributions  are  levied  on  the 
community  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Coolie  system 
and  for  general  purposes,  while  that  interest  reduces 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER.  i6i 

its  contributions  to  the  exchequer,  both  for  the  cost  of 
the  system  by  which  it  flourishes  and  for  its  own 
importations  ?  It  seems  to  me  this  is  making  the  rest 
of  the  colony  express  its  gratitude  for  the  favour  of 
a  governing  class  with  a  vengeance. 

The  Commissioners  acknowledgedly  speak  on  this 
matter  with  reserx^e.  Their  reasons  above  given  are 
far  from  conclusive.  When  a  colony  was  dragged 
down  to  the  lowest  depths,  and  almost  all  hope 
appeared  to  have  died  out  of  it,  it  may  have  been  a 
good  economic  move  to  levy  from  its  people  gene- 
rally the  means  of  introducing  a  new  element  which 
should  change  the  features  of  things.  But  when 
that  has  been  once  done,  and  those  primarily  benefited 
have  begun  to  enrich  themselves  by  the  use  of  the 
new  agent,  are  the  people  properly  called  upon  to 
contribute  any  longer  ?  Immigration  has  ceased  to 
be  a  necessity  of  any  life  at  all ;  it  is  now  an  esta- 
blished system,  and  an  artificial  demand  for  increased 
numbers  is  kept  up  by  artificial,  it  may  be  unbased, 
expansion.  This  expansion  speculatively  or  care- 
lessly continued  might  lead  to  a  crisis  and  to  the  most 
deplorable  consequences.  It  is  clear  that  the  tempta- 
tion to  speculative  planting  will  be  greater  under  the 
present  plan  than  if  the  whole  of  the  expense  were 
imposed  on  the  planters.  Nay,  in  this  latter  arrange- 
ment should  we  not  have  one  pledge  of  a  more  careful 
selection  in  India,  and  of  greater  care  of  the  emigrant 
in  Demerara  ?  Mr.  Oliver  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
greatest  planting  houses  in  the  colony,  owners  of 
estates,  agents  of  absentees,  merchants,  shippers — de- 
clared on  oath  before  the  Commission  that  the  general 
profits  of  the  planters  during  the  last  three  years 
have  not  reached  three  per  cent,  fer  annum  on  fJie 
capital  employed.  These  years  have  been  the  most 
signally  successful  years  of  the  after-slavery  sugar 
production,  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that,  if  this  be 

M 


1 62  THE  COOLIE. 

true,  not  another  Coolie  should  be  permitted  to  leave 
the  shores  of  India  for  British  Guiana  until  the  sugar 
interest  is  in  a  more  satisfactory  condition.  With  an 
artificial  forcing  system,  with  increasing  supplies  of 
labour,  with  vast  changes  in  machinery,  and  an  enor- 
mous expenditure,  if  this  is  the  net  result,  will  it  be 
safe  to  count  upon  a  good  future  for  the  Coolie  ?  An 
explanation  should  be  at  once  demanded  of  this  ex- 
traordinary statement — one  pregnant  with  the  gravest 
possibilities.  To  stay,  or  at  all  events  to  reduce,  the 
chances  of  this  "unhealthy  forcing,"  as  the  Com- 
missioners term  it,  the  most  obvious  plan  is  to  lay 
the  cost  of  immigration  proper  on  the  planters, 
leaving  to  the  colony  the  ample  burthen  of  maintain- 
ing order  and  good  government  in  the  anomalous 
state  of  society  created  by  it. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  agents  in  India  are  agents, 
not  of  any  section,  but  of  the  whole  community  of 
British  Guiana,  which  assumes  theoretically  the  re- 
sponsibility of  its  agents'  acts  ;  that,  in  fact,  however, 
the  greater  part  of  that  community  having  no  repre- 
sentative whatever  in  the  government,  this  agency 
is,  in  reality,  an  agency  only  of  the  planters,  and 
subordinately  of  the  English  Government.  Having 
considered  the  parties,  we  come  to  the  original  con- 
tract in  India,  and  the  method  of  making  it. 

I  have  said  that  artificial  immigration  arises  out  of 
the  necessities  of  the  employer.  He  must  look  out 
his  man,  and  offer  sufficient  inducements  to  lure  him 
away  from  home  and  friends  to  a  strange  land  and 
an  unknown  fortune.  The  government  of  the  country 
in  which  this  search  is  pursued  has  very  much  to 
say  about  it.  Its  duty  clearly  is  to  see  that  by  this 
delicate  operation  its  subject  is  not  cajoled,  or  misled 
as  to  the  nature  of  his  contract,  its  terms,  its  sanc- 
tions, or  the  conditions  of  the  field  on  which  it  is  to  be 
executed.     For  here  is  an  agent  going  in  and  out 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER.  163 

among"  its  population,  seeking  to  withdraw  thejtn  for 
years  from  its  protection.  The  Chinese  Government 
recog"nised  this  duty,  and  made  the  emigration  of  its 
people  a  subject  of  treaty.  The  Indian  Government, 
in  a  similar  way,  of  course  subject  to  the  Imperial 
Government,  has  also  accepted  the  responsibility  of 
keeping  a  rein  on  this  movement.  For  the  present, 
the  impracticable  conditions  imposed  by  the  Chinese 
have  virtually  stopped  Chinese  immigration  to  the  West 
Indies — one  condition  especially  being  viewed  by  the 
planters  as  of  crucial  hardship,  namely,  that  of  paying 
the  cost  of  the  return  passage  at  the  end  of  five  years. 
The  planters  have  calculated  that  with  the  expenses 
of  agencies,  of  bounties  to  the  recruits,  of  passage 
and  temporary  keep,  of  hospitals,  and  so  forth — they 
cannot,  in  five  years,  recoup  themselves  sufficiently 
out  of  the  average  labourer.  This  is  specially  the 
case  in  British  Guiana,  where  acclimatisation  both  of 
Chinese  and  Coolies  is  a  protracted  operation. 

Discarding  the  Chinese  emigration,  and  confining 
the  view  to  Coolie  immigration  from  India,  it  at  once 
appears  that  the  British  Government  and  people  are 
immediately  intevQSted  and  responsible  in  every  branch 
of  the  Coolie  system.  The  transference  is  of  our  own 
subjects  from  one  part  of  our  dominions  to  the  other 
— as  much  so  as  if  we  were  to  permit  English  farmers 
to  indenture  Irish  people  in  thousands,  and  use  them 
as  Coolies.  We  cannot  escape  responsibility  in 
supervising  the  initiation  of  the  contract,  any  more 
than  in  superintending  its  performance.  Both  take 
place  within  our  own  jurisdiction,  with  our  own  sub- 
jects. In  a  former  chapter  I  described  with  some 
particularity  the  agency  for  recruiting  and  forward- 
ing the  emigrants  from  India.  These  agencies  have 
been  established  as  the  result  of  much  thought  and 
correspondence  on  the  part  of  the  Colonial  Office, 
the  Indian  Government,  and  various  Colonial  Execu- 


1 64  THE  COOLIE. 

tives..  If  any  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  consider 
the  number  of  colonies  taking  or  requiring  emigrants, 
the  various  agencies,  the  various  laws  and  their 
intricacy,  he  will  be  convinced  that  in  this  single 
department  that  office  has  a  task  considerably  be- 
yond its  present  ability  to  perform  well.  It  is 
an  enormous  business.  I  have  heard  that  a  san- 
guine official  once  expressed  in  Parliament  his 
admiration  of  the  beauty  and  perfection  of  the 
system  of  that  office ;  but  I  fear  that  while  the 
head  of  the  official  ostrich  was  in  the  sand,  curious 
and  not  very  complimentary  spectators  were  passing 
their  remarks  on  the  scandalous  exposure  of  his  body. 
At  all  events,  it  is  perfectly  certain  that  very  few 
independent  colonists,  honestly  speaking  their  mind, 
would  concur  in  this  egregious  assumption.  The 
Colonial  Office  has  not  the  force  at  its  disposal  to 
attend  properly  to  half  its  business,  admitting  it  to 
have  within  its  ranks  the  practical  ability  or  the 
appropriate  colonial  representation  to  regulate  it. 

The  recruiters  are  engaged  and  sent  out  by  the 
Colonial  Emigration  Agent,  acting  under  the  Indian 
Acts  13  of  1864  and  6  of  1869.  They  are  further 
licensed  by  the  Indian  Government  official  to  whom 
I  have  before  alluded,  called  the  Protector  of  Immi- 
grants, at  Calcutta.  The  recruiter's  license  must 
have  been  countersigned  by  the  resident  magistrate 
of  the  district  in  which  he  works.*  I  had  placed  in 
my  hand  by  an  immigrant  in  Georgetown  a  sort  of 
advertisement  or  circular  purporting  to  have  issued 
from  the  colonial  agent,  with  a  statement  as  to  the 
character  of  the  country,  work,  and  wages,  and  a 
promise  to  the  immigrant,  if  I  remember  rightly,  of 
land  for  gardens.  This  paper  I  produced  before  the 
Commission,  and  asked  the  Immigration  Agent- 
General  to  verify ;  but  he  said  he  had  never  seen  a 

•  Report,  &c.,  H  185. 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER.  165 

similar  one,  and  was  unaware  of  its  issue.  Though 
there  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  circular  was  an 
authentic  one,  distributed  by  the  recruiters  in  India, 
it  was  quite  properly  rejected  by  the  Commissioners 
as  not  sufficiently  verified  for  their  purposes.  Now 
these  representations  are  of  the  utmost  consequence, 
and  the  colony,  through  its  agent,  is  directly  respon- 
sible for  them.  Exaggerated  statements  in  print,  or 
made  by  the  recruiters,  mislead  the  ignorant  Coolies, 
and  lay  the  basis  for  that  permanent  sense  of  wrong, 
which  makes  a  resentful  labourer,  with  the  danger  of 
corresponding  harshness  and  oppression  in  enforcing 
another  view  of  the  contract.  The  action  of  these 
recruiters,  therefore,  needs  careful  watching  on  the 
part  of  the  Indian  Government ;  and  after  their  work 
is  done,  and  the  Coolie  has  been  separated  from  them 
— nay,  even  up  to  the  time  of  embarkation — perfect 
freedom  of  choice  should  be  insured  to  the  recruits. 
Better  no  crop  of  sweetness  than  one  bred  of  discon- 
tent ^nd  deceit. 

The  temptation  to  these  recruiters,  who  can  hardly 
be  exempt  from  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
Hindu,  has  repeatedly  proved  too  great  to  be 
resisted.  Persons  of  poor  physique,  of  the  basest 
moral  stain,  suffering  from  leprosy  or  other  diseases, 
have  successfully  passed  under  the  supervision  of  all 
the  persons  whom  I  have  mentioned — the  recruiter, 
the  magistrate,  the  colonial  agent,  Protector  of  Immi- 
grants, doctors — and  have  reached  Georgetown  in  a 
state  which  proved  their  disabilities  to  have  been 
chronic.  When  this  appears,  we  cannot  be  sanguine 
as  to  the  carefulness  with  which  the  Coolie's  mind  is 
made  to  appreciate  his  contract  and  its  prospects.  A 
very  gross  case  has  recently  come  to  light  in  India — I 
trust  an  unusual  one ;  but  the  fact  that  an  attempt 
at  kidnapping  was  made  does  not  speak  well  for  the 
Indian  agencies.* 

*  See  Appendix  E. 


1 66  THE  COOLIE. 

So  much  for  the  recruiter  per  se.  Now  as  to  his 
authoritiitive  representations.  The  recruiter  takes 
his  people  before  the  resident  magistrate  of  his  dis- 
trict to  be  registered.  Copies  of  the  register,  stating 
age,  sex,  caste,  former  occupation,  and  the  rate  of 
wages  in  the  colony,  are  given  to  the  immigrant,  and 
duplicates  are  forwarded  to  the  colonial  agent.  "  In 
these  certificates  the  emigrants  are  almost  invari- 
ably entered  as  agriculturists,  whether  that  has  been  * 
their  former  occupation  or  not.  Their  caste,  which 
appears  side  by  side  with  this  description,  directly 
belies  it."*  Hence  many  tears,  troubles  to  managers 
from  incapables,  sorrows  to  the  incapables  them- 
selves, to  whom  Spartan  drowning  or  hanging  were 
a  better  fate  than  to  have  contracted  to  do  what  they 
cannot  do  with  the  alternative  of  shot-drill. 

The  wages  heretofore  stated  in  the  certificate — 
which,  by  the  way,  is  not  admitted  in  the  colony  to  be  a 
contract,  though  taken  to  be  so  by  the  Indian  Act, 
but  regarded  merely  as  a  representation — ar^  now 
proved  without  doubt  to  be  excessive.  Yet  "  the 
Governor  and  Court  of  Policy  of  British  Guiana" 
authoritatively  pledge  themselves  to  these  rates. 

Again,  a  complaint  frequently  made  to  me  by  the  im- 
migrants was,  that  until  they  arrived  in  Guiana  they 
had  no  idea  whatever  of  penal  consequences  to  result 
from  their  breach  of  contract.  No  doubt  they  are 
cunning  and  fraudful.  They  would  like  to  take  their 
bounty  money  and  get  their  free  passage  and  do  no 
labour ;  but  they  ought  surely  to  know  that  if  they 
wilfully  fail  the  prison  is  their  resource.  Why  not 
give  them  a  proper  form  of  contract,  epitomising  its 
conditions  and  honestly  informing  the  recruit  of  the 
incidents  to  which  he  is  subjecting  himself?  You 
say  :  He  would  not  come.  Then  what  right  have  you 
to  bring  him  ?     As  for  the  lajid,  which  is  temptingly 

•  Report,  &c.,  H  187,  189, 


THE  COLONIAL  EMPLOYER.  167 

held  out  to  innocent,  greedy  ears,  it  is  acknowledged 
to  be  a  farce. 

The  Protector  of  Immigrants  in  Calcutta  should  be 
instructed  to  examine,  and  perhaps  to  countersign, 
the  forms  of  certificates  issued  to  the  recruiters  ;  and 
should  also  hold  at  least  annual  communication  with 
the  Immigration  Agent  of  each  colony  to  demand  an 
official  statement  as  to  the  current  rates  of  wages.* 

Thus,  to  sum  up,  there  are  three  important  matters 
arising  out  of  the  Indian  organisation  : — i.  The  phy- 
sical quality  and  the  occupation  of  the  recruit.  2.  The 
representations  actually  made  to  the  Coolie  by  the  re- 
cruiters. 3.  The  representations  not  made  to  him  at 
the  time  of  making  the  contract.  On  all  these  points 
the  organisation  fails,  and  immediate,  trenchant 
remedy  is  required. 

The  recruiter  forwards  his  recruit  to  the  depot  on 
the  Hooghly,  where  the  immigrants  are  rationed  and 
examined,  as  before  described. 

At  this  examination  the  three  crucial  points  above 
specified  should  be  finally  settled.  A  careful  medical 
inspection  of  the  people  by  European  doctors,  repre- 
senting the  colony  and  the  Indian  Government,  should 
be  made,  and  the  unhealthy  be  rigidly  excluded. 
Secondly^  the  Protector  of  Immigrants,  or  some  other 
trustworthy  person,  should  examine  each  recruit  sepa- 
rately, and  explain  to  him  or  her,  in  native  language, 
the  outlines  of  the  contract,  its  sanctions,  and  the 
rate  of  wages.  Thirdly^  the  kind  of  labour  and  the 
consequences  of  a  breach  of  contract  should  be  dis- 
tinctly made  known. 

It  is  possible  that  fewer  immigrants  would  come, 

*  By  the  Ordinance  of  1843  (British  Guiana)  the  Agent-General  was  called 
on  to  prepare  once  in  every  quarter,  or  as  often  as  the  Governor  should 
appoint,  a  statement  of  tiic  average  rate  of  wages  and  of  tlie  advantages 
generally  afibrded  by  enij)loyers  in  tiie  colony,  for  transmission  to  all 
places  which  were  ports  of  government  emigration,  and  to  all  the  collect- 
ing agents  of  the  colony. — Report,  &c.,  H  115. 


1 68  THE  COOLIE. 

but  they  would  be  of  a  better  class,  and  such  a  class 
would  materially  reduce  the  necessity  of  an  expen- 
sive and  minute  organisation  to  watch  their  interests. 
The  bounty  must  always  prove  a  great  temptation  to 
these  people,  and  if  the  facts  affirmed  by  the  planters 
are  true,  the  returning  immigrants  must  always  be 
the  best  recruiters  for  the  colony. 

To  this  question,  then,  it  now  becomes  the  duty  of 
the  Home  and  Indian  Governments  to  give  their 
attention.  I  for  one  should  not  demand  or  hope  for 
a  perfect  system,  but  cannot  be  content  with  one  so 
far  from  tolerable  as  that  which  now  prevails  in 
India. 


I 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  IMMIGRATION   OFFICE  AND  ITS   CHIEF. 

THE  Immig'ration  Office  in  the  colony  is  the  next 
organisation  connected  with  the  Coolie  system 
which  demands  examination.  With  this  the  Coolie 
first  comes  in  contact  on  landing  in  the  colony,  from 
this  primarily  takes  his  orders,  to  it  must  from  time 
to  time  look  as  his  protector,  friend,  and  guide.  To 
the  childlike  Asiatic  it  stands  in  loco  parentis.  One 
who  has  not  seen  something  of  its  working  would  with 
difficulty  conceive  of  the  responsibility  and  labour 
of  this  office.  With  between  forty  and  fifty  thousand 
wards  in  the  colony,  distributed  over  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty  estates  spread  along  the  sea-shores  and  river 
banks  for  hundreds  of  miles  ;  with  the  names,  ages, 
estates,  &c.,  of  every  one  of  them  to  be  kept  duly 
registered  ;  with  four  or  five  thousand  additional  per 
annum  arriving  to  be  disembarked,  identified,  allotted, 
registered  ;  with  semi-annual  visits  to  be  paid  to  every 
estate,  and  re-indentures  of  immigrants  whose  time 
has  expired  to  be  granted  ;  with  constant  apparitions  of 
discontented  individuals,  and  occasional  irruptions  of 
large  bands  on  strike  ;  with  investigations  to  be  made 
into  complaints  either  of  officials  or  of  the  labourers — 
this  office  may  now  be  said  to  be  second  to  none  in 
the  colony  in  amount  of  the  work  to  be  done,  as  it 
certainly  is  second  to  none  in  importance. 


I70  THE  COOLIE. 

It  is  needless  Here  to  review  the  history  of  the 
Immigration  Department  in  British  Guiana,  one  pro- 
bably similar  to  that  of  other  immigrant-receiving 
colonies,  and  changed  and  adapted  from  time  to  time 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  service.  In  the  earlier  days 
there  was  less  need  of  officials,  and  less  for  them  to 
do.  The  Immigration  Agent-General  was  himself  able 
to  make  half-yearly  visits  to  all  the  estates  in  order 
to  re-indenture  and  receive  complaints.  At  that  time 
his  travelling  expenses  and  those  of  his  interpreter 
were  paid  by  the  colony,  in  addition  to  his  salary  of 
$3,360  per  annum.  "An  addition  was  made  to  his 
prescribed  duty  in  i860.  The  Immigration  Agent 
was  to  call  upon  the  immigrants  whose  indentures 
w^ere  within  six  months  of  their  expiration,  to  state 
whether  they  wished  to  re-indenture  on  the  same 
estate  or  to  change  their  employer,  or  to  commute 
their  service  out  and  out.  The  competition  among 
employers  for  acclimatised  and  skilled  labourers  now 
began  to  make  itself  felt  in  the  number  of  trans- 
ferences of  service  which  the  office  had  to  superintend. 
A  complicated  system  of  payments  and  repayments 
was  necessary,  and  much  extra  difficulty  was  ex- 
perienced owing  to  the  policy  adopted  by  the  office 
in  endeavouring  to  check  these  transfers,  by  which 
it  was  permitted  to  any  immigrant  to  retract  his  in- 
tention of  effecting  a  transfer,  although  he  had  pre- 
viously obtained  the  consent  of  his  new  employer,  at 
any  time  before  the  new  indenture  of  service  could  be 
actually  signed  by  the  new  employer  in  person.  This 
led  to  re-indentures  and  '  re-re-indentures '  innu- 
merable, and  at  last  the  situation  became  one  of 
intolerable  perplexity.  Managers  not  inclined  to 
quarrel  openly  with  each  other,  quarrelled  with  the 
Immigration  Agents,  who  were  in  this  matter  merely 
ministers  of  their  own  pleasure  ;  and  the  Agent- 
General  assures  us  that  the  '  demoralisation  '  among 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  171 

the  planters  and  (as  we  should  hardly  have  expected) 
among  the  immigrants  was  so  great,  that  it  became 
absolutely  necessary  to  put  a  stop  to  commutations 
altogether.  It  seems  hard  to  call  that  demoralisation 
in  the  labourers  which  was,  after  all,  merely  a  taking 
of  their  labour  to  the  best  market." 

The  real  history  of  the  office,  and  the  most  inter- 
esting, is  that  of  the  administration  of  the  present 
Immigration  Agent-General,  j\Ir.  Crosby  ;  and  if  I 
give  a  brief  residue,  of  this  history  as  related  by 
himself  and  the  Commissioners,  some  of  the  extra- 
ordinary circumstances  connected  with  it  will  be 
found  worth  the  examination.  When  I\Ir,  Crosby 
was  appointed  in  1858,  after  having  been  for  a  short 
time  a  stipendiary  magistrate  in  the  colony,  he  was  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  a  Protector  of  Immigrants. 
He  visited  the  estates  twice  a  year ;  he  inspected 
them,  the  law  conferring  on  him  the  right  of  entry  ; 
he  entertained  complaints  ;  he  preferred  informations 
on  behalf  of  immigrants  before  the  magistrates.  "  I 
had  in  effect  almost  entire  control  of  the  Immigration 
Department,  that  is  to  sa}^,  I  exercised  under  all  cir- 
cumstances my  own  discretion,  subject  of  course  to 
the  approbation  or  disapprobation  of  the  Governor. 
If  a  difficulty  arose  I  consulted  him,  and  if  occa- 
sionally his  acquiescence  and  authority  were  necessary 
under  the  (existing)  act,  I  applied  to  him ;  but  other- 
wise I  was  completely  at  the  head  of  an  important 
department."  Two  sub-agents,  so  called,  who  prac- 
tically acted  as  clerks,  were  at  that  time  appointed, 
one  of  whom,  formerly  a  schoolmaster,  has  latterly 
on  occasions  acted  in  Mr.  Crosby's  absence  as  the 
Agent-General.  As  the  business  of  the  office  in- 
creased, and  with  it  the  duties  of  the  Agent-General, 
it  became  necessary  to  re-distribute  the  work.  By 
successive  ordinances  certain  important  registers 
wete   required  to   be   kept.     A   register   of  married 


172  THE  COOLIE. 

heathen  immigrants  introduced  into  the  colony ;  a 
register  of  marriages  of  heathen  immigrants  in  the 
colony,  whereof  the  Agent-General's  certificate  was 
made  evidence ;  a  register  of  births  and  deaths ;  a 
register  of  immigrants  sent  to  the  Colonial  Office  for 
treatment ;  a  register  of  the  certificates  of  the  Coolies 
for  industrial  service  ;  and  copies  of  returns  from 
public  prisons,  &c.  By  these  registers  JMr.  Crosby's 
object  was  to  be  able  at  any  moment  to  account  for 
any  immigrant  who  had  landed  in  the  colony,  by 
showing  him  to  be  dead,  or  on  an  estate,  or  in  a 
public  institution — a  clear  matter  of  necessity  where 
the  range  of  country  and  seclusion  of  estates  might 
admit  of  occurrences  irregular  or  nefarious. 

The  Agent-General  took  the  superintendence  of 
these  important  registers,  as  also  of  the  landing  of 
immigrants  and  the  large  amount  of  business,  both 
concerning  planters  and  Coolies,  that  required  to  be 
attended  to  at  head-quarters.  To  the  sub-agents  was 
now  assigned  the  duty  of  making  the  half-yearly  visits, 
and  provision  was  made  for  the  payment  of  their 
expenses.  They  were  persons  of  less  individual 
weight  as  well  as  of  less  ofiicial  authority  than  the 
Immigration  Agent-General,  a  man  whose  inflexible 
nature  and  high  sense  of  duty  may  very  likely  have 
made  him  a  troublesome  visitor.  He  retained  the 
power  of  making  extraordinary  visits  to  the  estates 
on  special  occasions;  but  the  planters  took  care  to 
clip  his  wings  by  withdrawing  any  provision  for 
the  expenses  of  travelling  —  expenses  in  British 
Guiana  incredibly  great — on  such  special  complaints. 
The  Commissioners  say  :  "  It  was  most  unfortunate 
that  no  definite  arrangement  was  made  for  defray- 
ing the  expenses  of  these  extraordinary  visits.  If 
it  was  considered  that  the  increase  in  the  Agent- 
General's  fixed  salary  was  to  cover  them,  we  have 
seen  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  Agent-General 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  173 

to  understand  it  in  that  sense.  From  time  to  time 
a  very  large  increase  in  the  number  of  complaints  has 
called  for  a  considerable  expenditure  in  these  inves- 
tigations, and  it  cannot  have  been  expected  that  the 
Agent-General  should  defray  out  of  his  own  limited 
salary  a  charge  so  heavy  and  so  fluctuating.  The 
result  has  been,  that  the  investigations  in  out- 
lying districts  have  almost  always  been  committed 
to  the  sub-agents,  whose  travelling  expenses  were 
provided  for,  which  is  the  more  to  be  regretted, 
inasmuch  as  it  has  thrown  the  Agent-General  into 
the  background  as  a  peace-maker,  an  office  (par- 
ticularly in  the  case  of  Asiatics)  it  is  important 
should  be  filled  by  a  man  of  independent  authority, 
and  also  because  it  has  excluded  Mr.  Crosby  from 
the  exercise  of  functions  for  which  he  seems  to 
have  been  peculiarly  fitted.  In  three  or  four  in- 
stances during  the  last  six  years,  such  investiga- 
tions have  been  held  by  himself  in  person,  and 
have  been  more  fruitful  than  others  in  suggestions 
for  the  prevention  or  settlement  of  similar  com- 
plaints in  future.  That  at  Bel  Air,  in  1864,  appears 
to  us  to  be  a  good  model  of  patient  and  impartial 
inquiry."  * 

Under  the  Consolidated  Immigration  Ordinance, 
the  duties  and  powers  of  the  Agent-General  were 
defined  with  some  precision.  He  might  "  at  any  time 
enter  into  and  upon  any  plantation  on  which  immi- 
grants might  be  employed,  and  inspect  the  state  and 
condition  and  general  treatment  of  the  immigrants, 
and  the  state  and  condition  of  dwelling-houses  and 
hospital  accommodation,  and  inquire  into  any  com- 
plaint "  of  employer  against  immigrants  and  con- 
versely, and  make  a  report  to  the  Governor.f  lie 
might  also  prefer  a  complaint  before  a  magistrate  on 
behalf  of  an  immigrant,  when  the  immigrant  was  not 

•  Report,  U  135,  p.  49.  t  Ordinance  4,  1864,  sec.  97. 


174  THE  COOLIE. 

provided  by  his  eVnployer  with  sufficient  work  to 
enable  him  to  earn  a  just  amount  of  wages  in  terms 
of  his  contract,  which  complaint,  if  successful,  is  to  be 
reported  by  the  justice  to  the  Governor,  who  may 
thereupon  order  the  indenture  to  be  cancelled.*  By 
another  section  it  is  provided  in  these  words  :  f — 

**  If  it  shall  at  any  time  appear  to  the  Immigration 
Agent-General  that  any  immigrant  has  not  been 
paid  the  wages  due  to  him,  or  has  suffered  in  any 
way  any  ill-usage,  or  has  not  enjoyed  or  been  deprived 
of  [sic]  any  of  the  privileges,  advantages,  immunities, 
and  comforts  [sic]  intended  to  be  secured  to  him  by 
the  provisions  of  this  ordinance,  &:c.  ;  or  has  been 
treated  in  any  way  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this 
or  any  such  ordinance ;  the  Immigration  Agent- 
General  may  prosecute  an  inquiry  in  respect  to 
any  such  matters  as  aforesaid  ;  and  the  Immigration 
Agent-General  may  either  before  or  after  such  inquiry 
lay  an  information  or  make  a  complaint  in  his  own  name 
or  in  the  name  of  any  such  immigrant  as  he  may  think 
lit,  ag'ainst  the  employer  of  such  immigrant  or  any 
other  person,"  &c.  But  by  an  oversight  there  appears 
to  be  no  penalty  affixed  to  any  offences  not  coming 
W' ithin  other  laws  of  the  colony,  the  result  of  which  is 
that  in  cases  where  wages  are  withheld,  the  magis- 
trates do  not  feel  authorised  to  apply  a  summary 
remedy.^ 

These  provisions  conferred  on  the  Immigration 
Agent-General  powers  of  the  highest  consequence  to 
the  Coolie,  since  by  them,  if  he  were  a  man  of  inde- 
pendent spirit,  he  could  set  in  motion  all  the  forces  of 
the  law  and  the  Executive  to  obtain  justice  for  his 
Coolie  wards.  It  will  surprise  any  reader  attached  to 
constitutional  usages  to  learn  that  the  whole  of  these 
powers  were  practically  withdrawn  from  the  Agent- 

♦  Ordinance  4,  1864,  sec.  98.  f  Ordinance  4,  1864,  sec.  99. 

X  Report,  &c.,  H  137. 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  175 

»  General,  not  -by  a  repealing  ordinance,  but  by  a 
stroke  of  the  Governor's  pen  ! 

"The  history  of  ]\lr.  Crosby's  relations  to  Sir 
Francis  Hincks  was  a  continued  diminution  of  his 
(right  of)  initiative,  until,  from  being  the  head  of  an 
important  State  department,  he  had  become  a  sort  of 
chief  clerk  in  an  office  directed  in  its  minutest  details 
by  the  Governor  in  person." 

So  say  the  Commissioners ;  and  doubtless  the 
history  of  the  relations  of  Sir  Francis  Hincks  to  the 
colony,  could  it  be  written  in  its  bare  facts  and  con- 
sequences, would  be  one  of  very  remarkable  interest. 
The  Commissioners  do  not  go  on — as  they  might  well 
have  done — to  probe  the  motives,  real  and  apparent, 
which  urged  Mr.  Hincks  to  take  so  autocratic  a  course. 
His  duty  to  the  Office  which  had  appointed  him,  as 
well  as  to  abstract  justice  and  humanity,  was  clearly 
to  uphold  to  the  utmost  that  power  which  alone 
checked  the  absolute  power  of  the  planters,  yet  he 
thought  fit  to  assume  to  himself,  as  the  head  of  the 
Executive,  the  discretion  of  carrying  out  or  holding  in 
abeyance  some  of  the  most  important  duties  or 
sanctions  of  a  great  department.  Only  the  authority 
of  the  Commissioners  could  have  unurned  the  records 
of  this  odd  proceeding,  and  I  give  the  result  in  their 
own  words  :* — 

"  This  prohibition  was  communicated  to  Mr.  Crosby 
in  a  letter  from  the  Government  Secretary,  written  by 
the  Governor's  orders,  upon  the  occasion  of  a  corre- 
spondence arising  in  reference  to  another  case,  in 
which  the  conduct  of  a  stipendiary  magistrate  was 
impugned,  of  which  an  extract  is  subjoined  : — 

" '  There  is,  however,  a  question  of  a  more  general 
nature  suggested  by  this  correspondence,  namely, 
how  far  it  is  desirable  that  you  should,  as  Immigra- 
tion Agent-General,  institute  legal  proceedings  on 
♦  Report,  H  143-147,  152,  I53- 


176  THE  COOLIE. 

behalf  of  immigrants,  and  conduct  them  in  your  pro- 
fessional character  as  a  barrister-at-law. 

"'The  Governor  has  naturally  considered  this  branch 
of  the  subject,  and  recognises  to  the  fullest  extent  the 
zeal  you  have  displayed  and  the  anxiety  you  have 
manifested  to  discharge  your  duty  to  the  Government 
and  to  the  immigrants  whose  interests  are  so  espe- 
cially committed  to  its  protection.  His  Excellency 
has,  nevertheless,  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  it 
will  be  preferable  for  you,  in  future,  to  submit  all 
cases  in  which  you  may  think  official  interference 
called  for,  for  the  consideration  of  the  Executive,  by 
whom  they  will  be  laid  before  the  responsible  legal 
advisers  of  the  Crown  ;  and  if  they  should  be  of 
opinion  that  the  circumstances  are  such  as  to  require 
it,  the  necessary  steps  will  be  taken  to  secure  the 
object  you  have  in  view,  by  providing  for  the  appear- 
ance of  counsel  in  all  cases  where  the  circumstances 
may  seem  to  require  it.' " 

"  Mr.  Crosby  evidently  considered  this  prohibition 
to  apply  rather  to  the  manner,  than  to  the  act,  of  con- 
ducting a  prosecution ;  for,  on  the  3rd  of  February, 
1865,  he  again  appeared  in  court  as  prosecutor  in  a 
case  against  two  overseers,  for  assaulting  a  Chinese 
immigrant  on  Plantation  Wales.  The  case  was  dis- 
missed ;  but  the  overseers  had  previously  been  dis- 
charged from  the  plantation.  The  expenses  and  cost 
of  suit  to  the  Agent-General  amounted  to  $5.94. 

"  This  case  was  followed  by  another  communica- 
tion, as  follows  : — 

«*'3  February,  1865. 

"  *  Sir, 

"  *  I  am  directed  by  the  Governor  to  acquaint 
you  that  his  attention  has  been  called  to  a  statement 
in  the  newspapers  of  your  appearing  before  j\Ir. 
Stipendiary  Magistrate  Plummer,  in  your  official 
capacity,  as   his   Excellency   infers,   to   prosecute   a 


THE  IMMIGRA  TION  OFFICE.  1 7  7 

complaint  on  behalf  of  an  immigrant,  under  the  pro- 
visions of  sec.  99  of  Ordinance  4  of  1864. 

"'It  is  his  Excellency's  opinion  that  it  is  unde- 
sirable for  the  Immigration  Agent-General  to  appear 
as  prosecutor,  except  under  special  circumstances ; 
and  the  object  of  my  letter,  No.  1,800,  of  the  23rd 
December  last,  to  which  I  request  your  reference, 
was  to  signify  to  you  the  Governor's  wish  that,  be- 
fore acting  under  the  clause  in  question,  you  should 
acquaint  me,  for  his  consideration,  with  the  grounds 
on  which  you  consider  interposition  necessary. 

*' '  Not  having  received  any  reply  to  that  communi- 
cation, his  Excellency  assumed  that  you  would  be 
guided  in  your  future  proceedings  by  the  view  of 
the  Executive ;  but  he  has  reason  to  believe  that 
in  a  similar  case  you  brought  an  appeal  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Review,  without  any  such  previous 
consultation  as  his  Excellency  had  hoped  you  would 
have  adopted. 

"  *  He  cannot,  therefore,  but  fear  that  a  difference  of 
opinion  exists  between  the  Executive  Government 
and  yourself  as  to  the  extent  of  your  powers  under 
the  ordinance,  and  he  has  thought  it  expedient  to 
afford  you  this  further  opportunity  of  explaining  your 
views  upon  the  subject. 

"  '  I  am.  Sir 
"  'Your  most  obedient  servant, 
(Signed)  "*Wm.  Walker, 

"  *  Gov.  Secretary.' 

*'  This  letter  not  unnaturally  produced  an  answer 
of  some  length,  in  which  Mr.  Crosby  endeavoured  to 
show  the  inconvenience  of  the  method  of  proceeding 
now  enjoined  upon  him. 

"A  third  communication  fcjllowod,  in  which  the 
G(jvernor  laid  down  more  fully  than  before  the  extent 
to  which  he  wished  to  be  consulted  in  immigration 

N 


t^%  THE  COOLIE. 

matters ;  and,  in  fact,  assumed  the  cognizance  of  all 
matters  of  any  importance,  at  the  same  time  facili- 
tating business  by  suggestions  for  the  adoption  of  a 
less  formal  style  in  reports  and  minutes  than  before. 

"'I  have  received  and  laid  before  the  Governor  your 
letter  of  the  nth  instant,  which  only  reached  me 
yesterday;  and  I  am  directed  by  his  Excellency  to 
acquaint  you  that  he  deems  it  undesirable  to  notice 
further  the  specific  cases  adverted  to  by  you  in  your 
letter  at  some  length,  as  his  object  is  rather  to  secure 
a  more  satisfactory  administration  of  the  department 
in  future  than  to  occupy  himself  with  the  past. 

"  '  The  Governor  desires  me  to  remind  you  that  he 
has  a  direct  responsibility  for  the  acts  of  any  depart- 
ment of  the  Government  which  necessarily  involves 
consultation  with  him  on  all  subjects  of  importance, 
so  that  his  sanction  may  be  obtained  to  the  action 
taken  in  the  department. 

"'Although  reference  has  been  made  in  the  present 
correspondence  to  proceedings  which  may  be  taken 
under  section  99  of  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  the  Governor 
is  aware  that  many  other  proceedings  have  been 
adopted  by  you  without  his  previous  sanction,  though, 
in  his  opinion,  such  sanction  ought  to  have  been 
obtained. 

'*  *  The  Governor  wishes  you  clearly  to  understand 
that,  in  making  these  observ^ations,  no  censure  is 
implied.  If  the  system  be  defective,  the  Immigration 
Agent-General  is  even  less  responsible  for  it  than 
the  Governor. 

"  *The  object  which  his  Excellency  has  now  in  view 
is  to  devise  an  improved  system  for  the  future, 
calculated  to  lighten  materially  the  work  both  of  this 
office  and  of  the  Immigration  Department,  to  secure 
harmony  and  to  expedite  the  despatch  of  business ; 
that  the  present  circuitous  mode  of  corresDondence 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  179 

may  be  dispensed  with;  and  that  this  department 
may  be  to  a  great  extent  relieved  from  the  charge  of 
keeping  voluminous  records  upon  immigration  matters 
which  must  always  be  accessible  in  the  Immigration 
Department. 

"  '  The  Immigration  Agent-General  should  then 
adopt  the  system  now  pursued  in  this  office.  All 
letters  received  should  be  registered,  and  then 
docketed  with  the  number  and  date  of  receipt,  and 
sent  to  the  Government  Secretary,  with  such  sugges- 
tions as  to  disposal  of  the  matter  made  in  a  brief 
marginal  note  as  you,  as  head  of  the  department, 
may  think  suitable. 

"  *  The  papers  of  each  day  should  he  sent  in  a 
canister  to  this  office  every  afternoon,  by  three 
o'clock,  or  oftener  in  cases  of  emergency,  and  would 
be  returned  the  following  morning,  marked  "Ap- 
proved," with  the  date  on  the  paper;  or,  if  the  subject 
should  require  discussion,  or  that  the  Governor  should 
wish  to  refer  it  to  other  departments,  minutes  should 
be  made  in  the  same  informal  manner  on  the  original 
document,  or  on  papers  attached  thereto,  so  that  the 
opinion  of  every  person  consulted  would  be  on  record, 
the  Governor  giving  his  ultimate  decision  on  his  own 
responsibility. 

"  *  Such  minutes  would  require  very  little  time  in 
preparation ;  and  when  action  had  to  be  taken,  a 
letter,  the  substance  of  which  would  be  embodied  in 
the  final  minute,  might  be  written  without  a  rough 
draft  in  the  great  majority  of  cases. 

"  *  While  the  Governor  has  thought  this  a  convenient 
opportunity  of  communicating  to  you  his  views  as  to 
the  proper  mode  of  conducting  the  business  of  the 
department  in  future,  his  Excellency,  pending  the 
report  of  the  Commission  of  Inquiry  now  sitting,  has 
merely  directed  me  to  acquaint  you  that  he  must 
adhere  to  the  opinion  already  communicated  to  you. 


i8o  THE  COOLIE. 

that,  with  regard  to  proceedings  under  section  99 
of  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  and  to  all  other  important 
matters,  reference  to  him  should  be  made  before  any 
action  is  taken ;  and  his  Excellency  desires  me  further 
to  assure  you  that  this  mode  of  proceeding  will  not 
involve  the  delay  which  you  apprehend,  as  it  is  his 
invariable  practice  to  despatch  all  business  with  the 
greatest  promptitude. 

"  '  I  have  the  honour  to  be.  Sir, 

*'  'Your  obedient  humble  servant, 
fSigned)     " 'Walter  Howard  Ware, 

"  *  Acting  Government  Secretary.' 

"  It  will  easily  be  gathered,  from  the  above  commu- 
nication, that  some  difference  of  opinion  and  loss  of 
harmony  existed  at  this  time  between  the  Governor 
and  the  Agent-General. 

"■Jn  fact,  the  very  same  day  that  the  letter  last 
quoted  was  written,  the  Combined  Court  reported  a 
discussion  upon  a  'proposition  of  tJie  Governor  for  placing 
on  the  estimate  a  sum  of  $1,500  by  way  of  travelling 
expenses,  payable  in  equal  proportions  to  the  sub- 
agents,  independently  of  the  action  of  the  Agent- 
General.  To  this  Mr.  Crosby  strongly  objected, 
as  taking  the  power  of  travelling  himself,  and  of 
regulating  the  travelling  of  the  sub-agents,  entirely 
out  of  his  hands.  The  Governor,  looking  only  to  the 
ordinary  visits,  regarded  the  travelling  as  a  matter 
with  which  Mr.  Crosby  had  nothing  to  do,  and 
appealed  to  the  very  small  sum  expended  by  Mr. 
Crosby  on  special  visits  since  the  time  that  the 
travelling  expenses  had  to  be  defrayed  on  account,  as 
a  proof  that  it  was  unreasonable  to  place  the  disposal 
of  the  large  sum  of  money  now  voted  in  his  hands. 
Into  the  question  of  the  comparative  increase  or 
decrease  in  the  respective  emoluments  of  the  Agent- 
General  and  the  sub-agents,  we  are  not  disposed  to 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  181 

enter;  but  it  is  due  to  Mr.  Crosby  to  say  that, 
throughout  the  controversy,  he  alone  seems  to  have 
kept  in  view  the  importance  of  securing  the  utmost 
facility  of  paying  special  visits  to  estates — visits  to 
investigate  complaints,  as  distinguished  from  the 
ordinary  visits  for  re-indenturing  purposes. 

"  Governor  Hincks,  on  leaving  the  colony  for  a  short 
period,  forwarded  to  the  Colonial  Office  a  series  of 
complaints  against  the  action  of  the  Agent-General 
in  opposing  this  scheme,  and  in  other  matters  of 
trifling  importance  ;  and  follows  it  up  with  a  parting 
direction  to  ]\Ir.  Crosby,  dated  three  days  afterwards, 
to  send  every  paper,  hozvever  insignificant,  accompa-nied  by 
a  mitiute,  to  himself  for  approval  before  acting  upon  it. 
Governor  Hincks  then  left  the  colony;  and  his  last  com- 
munication was  not  acted  upon  for  a  considerable  time. 

*'  The  return  of  Governor  Hincks  replaced  matters  as 
he  left  them  with  regard  to  prosecutions.  Mr.  Crosby 
was  censured  by  the  Home  Government  for  indiscre- 
tion in  the  manner  of  his  opposition  to  the  Governor's 
plans ;  but  it  was  not  until  a  year  afterwards  that  he 
found  himself  compelled,  upon  his  own  return  from 
leave,  to  conform  to  the  instructions  issued  in  May, 
1866  ;  and  to  send  literally  every  note  that  came  into 
the  office  in  his  canister  to  the  Governor. 

"The  particular  communication  which  Mr.  Crosby 
quotes  as  having  occasioned  this  final  order  was  not 
quite  so  insignificant  as  he  deemed  it.  It  merely 
contained  the  name  and  description  of  an  immigrant, 
but  it  seems  that  the  result  of  this  information  was 
that  Mr.  Crosby's  correspondent,  apparently  without 
his  knowledge,  took  up  the  cudgels  against  aii  in- 
fiuential  manager  i7i  respect  of  some  grievance  alleged 
by  the  immigrant,  and  complained  to  the  Governor  of 
his  [the  maftager' s)  conduct*  From  this  time  forward, 
at  all  events,  and  perhaps  it  may  be  said  for  some 

•  Hinc  ilia  lacrymcs  ! 


i82  THE  COOLIE. 

time  previously,  the  Immigration  Office,  as  a  depart- 
ment of  the  Government,  has  no  history." 

No  one  who  reads  this  account  can  fail  to  see  its 
distinct  bearing  on  the  relation  of  planters  to  the 
Executive.  Why  should  the  Governor  desire  to  hold 
absolutely  in  his  own  hands  the  entire  business  of 
the  Immigration  Office  ?  Is  it  not  dangerous  that 
he,  who  may  be  intriguing  in  other  matters,  should 
suppress  any  original  power  in  an  important  State 
department,  and  reserve  to  himself  the  right  of  setting 
in  motion  or  restraining  the  laws  against  the  most 
powerful  class  of  a  community?  Lastly,  let  any  one 
candidly  ask  himself  what  would  have  been  the  effect 
of  a  similar  interference  on  the  part  of  the  Governor 
in  any  other  of  the  Colonial  departments,  and  whether 
the  plutocracy  of  Demerara  would  not  soon  have  made 
audible  in  Downing  Street  a  very  loud  protest 
against  his  usurpation  ?  In  fact,  I  fear  we  may  take 
it  that  the  planters  looked  with  jealousy  on  Mr. 
Crosby's  officiousness,  and  the  Governor  was  not 
unwilling  to  appease  their  discontent. 

In  1866  and  in  1868  Mr.  Crosby  was  absent  from 
his  office,  either  on  leave  or  to  take  the  place  of  an 
absent  judge.  He  was,  however,  still  the  Immigra- 
tion Agent-General.  His  head  clerk,  or  sub-agent, 
Mr.  Gallagher,  acted  for  the  head  of  the  office,  and, 
from  all  I  could  learn,  acted  with  the  distinguished 
approval  of  the  planters.  By  the  Ordinance  12  of 
1866,  which  is  even  a  few  degrees  more  desultory 
a  piece  of  legislative  literature  than  the  celebrated 
4  of  1864,  each  estate  was  to  keep  its  register  of 
births,  deaths,  desertions,  &c. — and  tJiis  register ,  after 
signature  by  the  sub-agent,  was  to  be  ^^  good,  prima  facte 
evidence  of  the  correctness  of  all  and  singular  of  that 
which  is  therein  set  forth  " — "  a  process  of  evidence- 
making  very  justly  objected  to  as  an  abuse  of  legis- 
lative  authority."*     Both  this   ordinance    and   that 

*  Report,  &c.,  H  155. 


THE  IMMIGRA  TION  OFFICE.  1 8  3 

of  1868 — the  provisions  of  which  were  chiefly  and 
obviously  to  facilitate,- not  the  Coolie's  case,  but  that 
of  his  employer — were  passed  without  consulting  the 
Agent-General.  Though  Mr.  Gallagher  drafted  the 
original  drafts  of  one  of  the  ordinances,  at  least,  and 
seemed  very  proud  of  the  achievement,  neither  he, 
nor  the  Governor,  nor  the  Court  of  Policy,  had  seen 
fit  to  communicate  their  intentions  to  the  head  of  the 
department  immediately  interested !  He  first  heard 
of  them  after  the  ordinances  were  passed  * — a  state  of 
relations  in  the  Colonial  administration  that  naturally 
awakens  some  very  curious  reflections. 

To  the  honour  of  the  present  Governor,  Mr.  John 
Scott,  it  should  be  mentioned  that  his  course  in  rela- 
tion to  the  Immigration  Office  has  been  in  some 
degree  to  restore  to  it  the  dignity  it  had  lost ;  but  it 
now  needs  reconstruction  and  establishment  by  a 
firm  hand  on  the  broadest  possible  basis. 

"It  v;ill  be  seen,"  say  the  Commissioners,!  "  that  we 
make  no  secret  of  our  conviction  that  the  conversion 
of  the  Immigration  Office  from  a  public  department 
into  a  sort  of  secretariat  of  the  Governor's  [sic]  %  for 
immigration  purposes  was  a  gross  administrative  mis- 
take. If  the  Governor  of  British  Guiana  were  absolute, 
it  would  still  be  impolitic  that  his  personal  initiative 
should  be  required  in  a  series  of  details  of  small  im- 
portance to  the  welfare  of  the  colony  at  large,  but 
touching  very  closely  the  interests  of  the  principal 
private  persons  under  his  sway.  But  being  as  he  is 
an  officer  of  great,  indefinite,  but  not  absolute  power, 
standing  face  to  face  with  an  aristocracy  wielding  a 
power  equally  indefinite  and  not  incommensurate 
with  his  own,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  inexpedient 
that  the  daily  routine  work  of  an   office  expressly 

*  Report,  &c.,  H  157.  t  lb.,  H  156. 

t  The  Commissioners'  style  has  a  luxurious  trofjical  abandon  about  it, 
but  the  enormous  range  of  their  labours  aliundaiitly  excuses  them.  Besides, 
there  is  the  colonial  printer  between  them  aud  the  reader. 


i84  THE  COOLIE. 

founded  to  protect  the  immigrants,  when  necessary, 
against  the  mistakes  or  failings  of  the  individual 
members  of  that  aristocracy,  should  be  done,  and 
known  to  be  done,  under  his  eye,  if  not  by  his  own 
hand.  The  tendency  which  we  have  observed  in 
perusing  the  very  important  series  of  complaints 
from  which  we  have  quoted  so  often  has  continually 
been  to  deal  with  the  grievances  of  immigrants  as 
matters  of  administrative  or  even  of  private  corrc- 
spondejice^  rather  than  of  piiblic  justice.  The  penal 
clauses  of  the  Consolidated  Ordinance  affecting  em- 
ployers and  managers,  except  in  two  or  three  cases 
of  ill-usage,  which  might  after  all  have  been  treated 
as  cases  of  common  or  aggravated  assault,  have  been 
suffered  to  lie  dormant,  while  the  Government  Secre- 
tary was  writing  to  the  attorney  or  manager — obtain- 
ing a  promise  of  redress  more  or  less  indefinite, 
and  informing  the  Agent-General  thereupon  that  no 
further  action  was  required." 

Hence  the  Commissioners  emphatically  recommend 
that  the  anomaly  on  which,  long  before  their  report 
had  been  made,  I  had  animadverted — namely,  that  the 
head  of  the  Immigration  Department  was  not  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Court  of  Policy — should  be  remedied.* 

"The  mishaps  which  have  attended  the  work  of 
legislation  in  immigration  matters,  of  which  many 
clauses  in  the  Acts  of  1864  and  1868  are  conspicuous 
monuments,  might  all  have  been  averted,  and  pro- 
bably would  have  been,  if  the  official  whose  duty  it 
was  to  carry  them  into  execution  had  had  a  voice  in 
the  discussion  which  preceded  their  enactment.  It 
appears  likely  that  legislation  will  still  be  necessary 
to  remove  the  more  flagrant  of  the  anomalies  which 
exist,  if  not  to  introduce  novel  provisions  for  the 
improvement  of  the  system.  But  the  experience  of 
past  legislation    would    leave   us  hopeless    of   any 

*  Report,  &c.,  U  161,  162. 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  185 

approximation  to  completeness  in  the  work,  if  it  were 
to  be  conducted  in  the  hap-hazard  way  of  former  times. 
The  present  Agent-General  tells  us  that  he  drew  the 
Ordinance  of  1864.  The  present  Acting  Agent- 
(jeneral  made  the  first  draft  of  the  Ordinance  of  1868  ; 
but  in  both  cases  they  refused  to  recognise  their 
offspring,  ill-treated  as  it  was  in  their  absence  by 
the  legislature  without  their  having  any  opportunity 
of  explaining  it,  or  of  bringing  the  modifications  so 
effected  into  harmony  with  the  whole. 

"  In  another  respect  we  think  it  expedient  that  the 
Immigration  Agent-General  should  have  a  seat  in 
the  Court  of  Policy.  He  would  represent  in  his 
official  capacity  the  interests  of  a  very  large  section 
of  the  population  who  are  at  present  necessarily  ex- 
cluded from  direct  representation  in  the  legislature. 
The  weakest  side  of  the  constitution  of  British  Guiana 
is  confessed  to  be  the  exclusiveness  by  which  direct 
representation  is  confined  to  one  interest,  the  most 
p  nverful  in  the  colony,  although  certainly  the  most 
capable.  And  any  small  modification  which  would 
tend,  although  indirectly,  to  diversify  the  constituent 
elem.ents  ought  to  be  thankfully  welcomed  both  by 
the  public  and  the  predominant  interest  itself.  There 
are,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to  show,  special  reasons 
in  the  nature  of  his  work  for  allowing  the  Agent- 
General  a  large  discretionary  action  before  calling  in 
the  interposition  of  the  Executive  in  person.  To  these 
we  desire  to  add  that,  in  any  future  nomination  to  the 
office,  it  will  be  simply  impossible  to  secure  the 
services  of  an  official  qualified  to  perform  its  duties 
so  long  as  his  functions  are  limited,  as  at  present,  to 
the  merest  routine  work  and  the  expansion  into 
] otters  of  minutes  written  by  the  Government.  Such 
duties  might  be  satisfactorily  performed  by  a  head 
clerk  without  any  particular  standing.  But  this  is  not 
all  that  has  to  be  provided  lor.     Personal  qualities  of 


1 86  THE  COOLIE. 

a  high  order,  though  of  a  1-find  happily  not  rare 
among  our  fellow-countrymen,  are  required  in  the 
official  to  whom  50,000  expatriated  Asiatics  are  look- 
ing for  watchful  protection  and  guidance.  Powers 
also  of  considerable  magnitude  must  be  frankly 
intrusted  to  him  if  he  is  to  have  any  personal  in- 
fluence for  good." 

The  Commissioners  have  not  in  their  Report  ad- 
verted to  the  fact  that,  in  the  ordinance  passed  last 
year  in  Trinidad,*  under  the  auspices  of  ^Ir.  Arthur 
Gordon,  its  late  Governor,  the  power  and  authority  of 
the  Immigration  Agent-General  in  that  colony  are 
properly  maintained.  The  whole  act,  indeed,  is  a 
great  improvement  on  that  of  British  Guiana.  As 
to  this  point,  it  gives  special  power  to  the  Agent- 
General  to  inspect  the  state  and  condition  of  the  immi- 
grants, and  report  to  the  Governor  every  six  months  ;t 
in  case  it  should  appear  to  him  that  an  immigrant 
has  been  ill-used,  or  in  case  of  neglect  of  duty  or  breach 
of  contract  on  the  part  of  tJie  employer^  he  may,  by  notice 
in  the  Gazette^  cancel  the  indenture  of  such  immigrant ; 
and,  as  an  additional  sanction  in  such  a  case,  "  no 
immigrant  shall  be  allotted  to  such  employer  under 
any  application  previously  made  by  him."  %  Further, 
*'  the  Governor  may,  by  like  notice,  cancel  the  inden- 
ture of  any  immigrant  if  the  Agent-General  shall 
report  that  the  accommodation  provided  for  such  im- 
migrant is  bad  or  insufficient,  or  that  any  immigrant 
requiring  medical  care  and  treatment  has  not  been 
sent  to  hospital  or  received  proper  medical  treatment, 
or  if  the  Governor  shall  on  any  other  ground  consider 
it  requisite  so  to  do."§  All  penalties  and  forfeitures 
under  the   ordinance  may  be  sued  and  recovered  by 

*  "An  Ordinance  enacted  by  the  Governor  of  Trinidad,  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Legislative  Council  thereof,  with  regard  to  Immigra- 
tion, Nov.  13,  1870." 

t  lb.,  s.  22.  X  It).,  s.  23.  §  lb.,  s.  24. 


I 


THE  IMMIGRATION  OFFICE.  187 

the  Agent-General;  and,  finally,  "the  Agent-General, 
and  every  sub-agent  and  inspector,  have  power  to 
enter  upon  any  plantation,  and  to  inquire  into  any 
breach  of  the  peace  or  oifence  against  the  ordinance, 
and  to  administer  an  oath  to  any  person  able  to  give 
evidence  touching  any  such  matter,  and  to  grant  a 
warrant  for  the  immediate  arrest  of  any  person  who 
may  appear  to  have  been  guilty"  of  the  offences 
designated. 

By  this  ordinance  the  intention  is  evident  to  erect 
in  the  person  of  the  Immigration  Agent-General  a 
high  original  authority,  able,  on  the  Coolie's  behalf, 
to  cope  with  the  most  audacious  employer.  Such 
an  intention  was  manifestly  in  jVIr.  Crosby's  own 
brain  when  he  drafted  his  luckless  Ordinance  of  1864. 
Such  a  power  is  incontestably  essential  to  the  proper 
establishment  of  his  office ;  and  one  of  the  earliest 
reforms  to  be  insisted  upon  is  to  assimilate  the  powers 
and  authorities  of  office  in  British  Guiana  to  those  of 
Trinidad. 


\ 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

INDENTURES,   REGISTERS,   RE-INDENTURES,   AND 
IMPRISONMENTS. 

WE  have  seen  how  under  the  Indian  laws  and 
those  of  British  Guiana  the  Coolie  is  enlisted, 
conveyed  to  his  destination,  and  allotted  to  the 
planter.  We  are  now  to  consider  tJie  laws  at  the 
seat  of  labour. 

When  the  allotment  of  the  Coolie  has  been  made 
to  a  plantation  in  the  manner  described  in  a  former 
chapter,  he  comes  within  the  pale  of  that  artificial 
system  of  legislation  by  which  it  is  sought  to  check 
and  countercheck  the  misunderstandings  or  breaches 
between  him  and  his  employer.  The  original  certifi- 
cate of  the  magistrate  in  India  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
contract  made  immediately  with  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment. It  is  true  that  the  engagement  is  to  accept  its 
nominee  as  the  co-contractor  on  arrival  in  the  colony, 
but  the  Colonial  Government  can  at  no  time  absolve 
itself  from  the  direct  responsibility  of  that  original 
contract.  So  soon  as  the  Coolie  has  been  allotted  to 
a  master,  a  process  consequent  on  certain  formalities 
of  application,  deposit,  and  payment  duly  prescribed 
by  the  law,  he  is  indentured  to  the  allottee.  The 
indenture  is  in  this  form  :* — 

*  Ordinance  4,  1864,  s.  41,  schedule  B.,  No.  4. 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  189 

This  indenture,  made  on  the  ist  day  of  April  in  the  year  i86r,  between 
yofm  Smith,  as  proprietor  (or  attorney,  &c.),  of  Plantation  Blank,  in  the 
county  of  Demerara,  in  the  colony  of  British  Guiana,  of  the  one  or  lirst 
part,  and  the  several  [Indian,  Chinese,  ^'c,  as  the  case  maybe)  immigrants 
whose  names  are  respectively  subscribed  hereto,  of  the  other  or  second 
part,  witnesseth  as  follows  : — 

That  the  said  employer  agrees  to  hire  the  semces  of  the  said  several 
immigrants,  and  the  said  several  immigrants  agiee  to  serve  the  said  Em- 
ployer as  Labourers  for  the  term  of  Jive  years,  commencing  on  the  1st  day 
of  April,  1861,  subject  in  all  respects  to  the  provisions  of  the  Consolidated 
Immigration  Ordinance,  1864. 

(Signatures) 

(Attestations). 

Both  employer  and  immigrant,  therefore,  are 
thenceforth  bound  by  the  provisions  of  the  Colonial 
Immigration  Laws.  By  this  time  I  am  afraid  Ram- 
sammy  has  no  option  but  to  accept  the  terms,  even 
should  he  know  and  object  to  them.  But  they  are 
not  exactly  the  terms  explained  to  him  in  India. 

One  of  the  earliest  questions  naturally  arising  after 
the  Coolie's  arrival  is  his  physical  fitness  for  agricul- 
tural labour.  Even  though  men  should  have  escaped 
the  examination  of  the  agents  in  India  they  may  be  so 
unfit  to  work  that  it  is  impolitic  to  indenture  them.  For 
this  contingency  the  ordinance  provides  a  remedy, 
which  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  Executive  to  apply.  In 
cases  where  an  immigrant  appears  to  have  some  capa- 
city, but  is  not  adapted  to  agricultural  labour,  *'  he  may 
be  indentured  to  perform  such  other  service  as  he  may 
be  willing  and  fit  to  perform."*  Or  if,  within  three 
months  of  the  arrival  of  any  immigrant  who  has 
been  indentured  in  the  ordinary  way,  it  appears  that 
he  has  any  disease  or  disability  rendering  him  per- 
manently unable  to  serve  under  his  indenture,  the 
employer  may  apply  to  the  Executive  to  relieve  him 
of  the  labourer,  and  the  latter  may  be  sent  to  one 
of  the  public  institutions  of  the  colony.  To  such 
an  immigrant  the  Governor  may  grant  a  certificate 
*  Ordinance  4,  1864,  s.  57. 


190  THE  COOLIE. 

of  exemption  from  labour;  and  may  also,  if  he  think 
fit  so  to  do,  order  any  such  immigrant  to  be  pro- 
vided, at  the  expense  of  the  Immigration  Fund,  with 
a  passage  back  to  India.*  The  Chinese  are  not  pro- 
vided with  back  passages. 

It  appears  on  the  face  of  it  necessary  to  the  welfare 
as  well  of  any  chance  wretches  incapable  of  duty, 
as  of  the  masters  on  whom  the  liability  of  maintain- 
ing them  would  otherwise  rest,  that  these  provisions, 
even  though  they  are  expensive,  should  be  freely 
carried  out  by  the  Executive.  Practically  you  cannot 
force  men  to  be  benevolent  against  their  will,  and 
a  dead-weight  on  an  employer's  pocket  we  may 
generally  expect  him  to  shirk  if  he  can,  whether 
he  be  in  Demerara  or  Great  Britain.  Why  should 
we  count  on  greater  generosity  in  a  planter  than 
we  find  in  a  Board  of  Guardians  ?  I  did  see  such 
an  instance  of  fair  treatment  in  the  case  of  a  powerful- 
looking  fellow  on  the  Houston  estate.  As  we  were 
passing  him  his  low  salaam  attracted  my  attention 
to  his  good  condition.  Mr.  Carruthers,  the  manager, 
stopped  and  called  him.  He  faced  us  silent.  "Goon," 
said  the  manager.  Placing  his  two  hands  together, 
he  proceeded  to  drum  with  his  finger  on  his  lips, 
producing  a  peculiar  sing-song  whizzing.  "  There," 
said  his  master,  "  that's  all  that  man  can  do.  He 
never  does  a  stroke  of  work.  He's  clearly  an  idiot, 
and  I  have  asked  the  Executive  to  relieve  me  of 
him,  but  they  won't  do  it:  so  I  have  to  feed  him 
for  five  years."  Now,  in  my  opinion,  nothing  should 
have  deterred  the  Executive  from  returning  the 
man  to  India.  ]\Ir.  Crosby  stated  that  this  had 
been  done  in  several  cases.  "  Last  year  I  sent  back 
two  women  in  one  ship.  They  were  in  fact  idiots, 
and  were  sent  back.  I  have  done  so  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  when  I  have  found  old  persons  who 
*  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  s.  58. 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  191 

were  incapable  of  getting  their  livelihood  and  wished 
to  return."  The  necessity  for  this  "  entirely  arises, 
in  my  opinion,  from  our  not  having  a  proper  medical 
man  in  the  depot  at  Calcutta  continuously  to  per- 
form his  duties — connected  with  the  depot,  but  not 
entirely  under  the  control  of  the  agent,  because  one 
should  be  a  slight  check  on  the  other.  The  surgeon 
should  be  a  man  on  whom  this  colony  can  rely  for 
having  proper  people  sent  for  the  labour  of  the 
colony.  We  should  save  25  per  cent,  upon  the  whole 
amou)it  of  the  immigrants  introduced."  But  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  these  sections  were  not  very 
freely  put  in  force,  and  that  numbers  of  immigrants 
quite  unused  to  agricultural  labour,  quite  unfit  to 
engage  in  it,  and  I  fear  quite  ignorant,  till  they 
found  themselves  face  to  face  with  it  and  its  iron 
exigency,  of  the  Colonial  Labour  Law,  were  allotted 
to  estates.  There  is  little  difficulty  in  tracing  the 
results  of  such  a  state  of  things.  The  climate  is 
trying  enough  to  strong  men,  but  to  these  weak 
creatures,  especially  when  exposed  to  the  hardships 
they  had  to  bear  on  some  of  the  badly-managed 
estates,  it  soon  became  an  impossibility  to  earn 
enough  to  maintain  them.  Often  in  hospital,  often 
by  their  weakness  tempted  to  feign  even  worse 
disease  than  really  afflicted  them,  they  became  a 
burthen  to  the  estate,  a  nuisance  to  the  manager,  and 
restless,  complaining,  unprofitable,  in  the  work  they 
did.  It  was  natural,  when  he  found  himself  saddled 
with  such  persons,  for  the  manager  to  determine  to 
get  all  he  could  out  of  them.  Hence  would  come 
frequent  summonses  before  the  magistrate,  proofs 
that  they  were  fit  to  labour— which  meant  practically 
were  not  quite  fit  to  be  in  hospital — convictions, 
imprisonments,  return  of  the  same  miserable  crea- 
tures to  repeat  the  process,  till  death,  or  hopeless 
debility,  or  suicide,  relieved  the  estate  of  the  incubus. 


192  THE  COOLIE. 

It  was  against  such  occurrences  that  the  planters 
themselves  found  it  necessary  to  act,  though  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  many  of  them  were  so  anxious  to 
have  the  labour,  that  they  were  willing  to  run  the  risk 
of  taking  the  small  amount  it  cost  them  even  out  of 
third-rate  immigrants.  Fiat  expcri»icntum  in  corpore 
viliy  rather  than  not  at  all.  In  the  future,  care  must  be 
taken,  not  only  in  British  Guiana,  but  in  other  West 
Indian  colonies,  that  opportunities  are  not  afforded  of 
repeating  that  experiment.  I  have  spoken  of  the 
above  process  as  a  "  natural "  process.  In  a  despatch 
of  Sir  Philip  Wodehouse  to  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Colonies,  on  the  provisions  of  the  Consolidation 
Immigration  Ordinance,  he  says  : — 

"  From  the  first  of  these  causes  {i.e.y  the  expense, 
&c.,  attending  the  immigration)  there  arises  naturally 
in  the  minds  of  the  immediate  employers,  and  per- 
haps of  all  classes,  a  strong  desire  to  obtain  from 
the  immigrant  what  they  regard  as  nothing  more 
than  a  just  return  for  the  heavy  outlay  attendant 
on  his  introduction,  and  his  restoration  to  his  own 
country."  This  I  should  explain  alluded  only  to  the 
length  of  indentures. 

I  was  informed  that  previously  to  the  Commission 
the  streets  of  Georgetown  used  to  be  frequented  by 
terrible  and  ghastly  subjects  of  disease.  Lepers  are 
now  by  the  law  of  British  Guiana,  in  contravention, 
I  believe,  of  the  Report  of  the  Leper  Commission 
against  the  contagiousness  of  the  disease,  confined 
to  a  leper  village.  Yet  I  have  seen  a  few  objects 
exposed  in  Georgetown,  for  which  humanity  and 
decency  demanded  a  kindly  asylum.  The  exporta- 
tion of  old  or  feeble  men  to  the  West  Indies  as 
labourers  is  obviously  inhuman,  but  it  is  against  the 
interests  of  the  planters,  and  is  therefore  an  evil  not 
likely  to  be  of  long  duration. 

It  is  clearly  of  the  first  moment  that  the  Executive 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  193 

in  any  Coolie-worked  colony  should  maintain  a 
rigorous  watch  over  the  pcrsoitncl  of  the  estates. 
Every  man,  woman,  and  child  under  indenture  should 
be  registered,  identified,  and  from  time  to  time  ac- 
counted for,  by  the  planter  to  the  Government  of  the 
colony,  and  by  that  Government  to  the  Colonial 
Office.  There  need  be  no  more  difficulty  in  doing 
this  respecting  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  persons  than 
in  accounting,  as  they  do  in  some  of  our  mammoth 
establishments,  for  every  pound  of  staple  that  goes 
in  and  out  during  the  year.  The  Immigration  Ordi- 
nances contain  provisions  aimed  at  securing  this  end. 
Whether  they  are  sufficient,  and  are  rigidly  enforced 
by  the  authorities,  must  be  vital  points  in  any  inquiry 
concerning  Coolie  immigration.  Registers  of  inden- 
tured persons,  of  marriages,  of  births,  of  deaths,  of 
deserters,  of  suicides,  of  immigrants  imprisoned,  care- 
fully kept  by  the  employers  and  duly  reported  to  the 
Immigration  Office  in  the  colony,  are  essential  to  the 
proper  working  of  the  system.  In  fact,  Mr.  Crosby's 
ambition  was  a  right  and  reasonable  one,  namely, 
"  to  be  able  at  any  time  to  account  for  every  immi- 
grant in  the  colony."  The  importance  of  this  will  be 
clear  to  the  reader  if  he  will  consider  the  vast  extent 
of  the  country,  the  seclusion  of  the  estates,  and  their 
contiguity  to  a  wilderness.  The  Immigration  Agent- 
General  referred  to  the  inconveniences  likely  to  arise 
out  of  imperfect  returns  in  this  quaint  fashion  :  "  The 
registers  of  mortality  are  not  in  all  respects  certain 
and  reliable,  because  sometimes  persons  are  reported 
dead  when  they  are  not  so,  and  sometimes  persons 
are  reported  as  having  just  died  when  they  have  died 
three  or  four  years  before.  Then  we  are  obliged  to 
•write  mid  aslz  who  are  really  dead,  as  the  person 
mentioned  had  died  three  or  four  years  before  !"  The 
difficulties  of  identification  are  aggravated  by  the 
number  of  Indian  "  Smiths  "  or  "  Joneses  "  who  come 

o 


1 


194  THE  COOLIE. 

in  the  same  ship.  The  uncertainty  and  imperfectness 
of  these  returns  were  the  less  excusable  because,  by 
the  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  a  penalty  of  ^24  was  imposed 
for  neglect  to  make  them.  Mr.  Crosby,  however,  in 
the  course  of  his  examination,  defended  the  Immigra- 
tion Office  from  its  too  evident  omission  to  enforce  the 
\  law  by  suing  for  the  penalty,  on  the  ground  that,  by 
a  technical  construction  of  the  act,  the  clause  was 
inoperative.  "  The  words  in  the  directory  clause  of 
the  act  being,  that  such  a  person  shall  make  oiil  and 
deliver  the  half-yearly  and  other  returns.  Whereas 
the  penalty  is  for  nol  sending  them  in."  The  Commis- 
sioners express  their  surprise  that  such  technicalities 
had  in  this  and  other  cases  restrained  the  action  of  the 
Immigrant  Agent-General,  but  a  not  very  deep  study 
of  the  courts  of  Demerara  enabled  me  to  see  that  they 
too  much  resembled  our  courts  in  the  days  of  special 
pleading,  in  their  love  of  judicial  straw-splitting  and 
nonsensical  adherence  to  the  letter ;  and  no  doubt 
Mr.  Crosby,  who  has  had  considerable  experience  as 
a  colonial  judge,  knew  his  measure. 

The  indenture,  as  we  have  seen,  extends  over  five 
years.  At  the  end  of  that  time  the  freedman  is  open 
to  a  re-indenture,  if  he  pleases,  y(?r  another  term  of  five 
years^  and  for  no  less  period.  For  this  he  receives  a 
bounty  of  §50.  We  may  consider,  y^r^/,  the  law  regu- 
lating the  machinery  of  re-indentures;  and  secoyzdly, 
the  policy  of  re-indentures,  for  any  and  what  term  of 
years.  And  (i)  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Immigration 
Agent-General,  or  his  sub-agents,  to  visit  every  estate 
in  the  colony  once  in  six  months,  after  giving  seven 
days'  notice  by  advertisement.  The  manager  is  then 
required  to  produce  every  indentured  Coolie  who  may 
have  completed,  or  may  within  the  next  six  months 
complete,  his  term  of  service.  Thereupon  the  agent 
may,  if  the  Coolie  is  willing,  renew  the  indenture. 
The  state  of  the  law  with  respect  to  these  re-inden- 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  195 

tures  is  less  than  satisfactory.  Its  main  policy  is  to 
encourage  re-indentures — to  encourage  them  for  a 
long  space  of  time,  and  thus  to  keep  the  Coolie  in  bond 
and  out  of  the  free  market.  This  is  directly  contrary 
to  the  policy  originally  entertained  in  the  Colonial 
Office  in  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  time,  when  one  of 
the  ends  held  in  view,  in  permitting  immigration, 
was  the  ultimate  establishment  of  the  Coolie  as  a  free 
labourer.  This  also  must  be  opposed  to  the  real  and 
permanent  interest  of  the  immigrants,  who  are  by  this 
expedient  kept  in  a  floating  state,  and  whose  fate,  as  I 
have  previously  pointed  out,  is  made  to  depend  on  con- 
tingencies. The  means  by  which  this  policy  is  carried 
out  are  twofold.  One  is  an  appeal  to  the  Coolie's 
cupidity,  by  offering  him  the  bounty  for  five  years 
lumped  in  one  sum.  The  other  is  by  enactments  which 
often  place  it  in  the  power  of  the  employer  to  hold 
serious  threats  over  the  immigrant  if  he  will  not  re- 
indenture.  By  sec.  94  of  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  and  7 
of  Ordinance  13  of  1866,  the  agent,  before  granting 
the  certificate  or  re-indenturing  the  Coolie,  must 
ascertain  whether  he  has,  during  his  period  of  ser- 
vice, deserted  or  been  imprisoned  for  a  longer  time 
than  one  month  in  each  year  of  his  indentureship, 
and,  for  whatever  time  has  thus  been  lost  to  the 
master,  extend  the  indenture.  So  that  a  Coolie  who 
had,  during  his  five  years,  spent  three  or  ten  months 
in  prison,  would,  in  addition  to  that  punishment, 
be  obliged  to  repay  his  master  three  or  ten  months' 
service.  This  seems  unreasonable,  but  is  almost 
a  necessary  consequent  to  inflicting  imprisonment 
for  breach  of  contract,  on  which  I  shall  have  a  word 
to  say  directly.  The  manner  of  proving  this  is, 
perhaps,  unique  in  modern  legislation.  It  is  done 
by  entries  in  a  book  kepi  by  the  viannger,  called  the 
Estates  Register,  and  his  oath  is  the  voucher  for 
its  correctness.     No  reference  is,  in  practice,  made 


iq6  THE  COOLIE. 

to  prison  registers  to  verify  these  statements.  "The 
Estates  Register,"  says  the  Report,  "of  Imprisonments 
and  Desertions,  upon  which  so  much  is  left  to  depend, 
is  in  general  fairly  kept ;  but  the  Acting  Immigration 
Agent-General  (Mr.  Gallagher),  who  avers  himself  to 
be  the  suggester,  appears  to  consider  that  *  if  the 
employers  choose  to  omit  entering  desertions  and 
imprisonments,  it  is  not  for  the  Immigration  Office  to 
find  fault  with  them  ;  the  duty  of  the  Immigration 
Officer  being  restricted  to  seeing  that  no  entries  are 
made  which  are  not  bond  fide*  It  is  obvious  that  a 
register  which  is  kept  with  accuracy  only  if  and  when 
it  is  intended  to  use  it  as  evidence  is  not  merely  an 
ex  parte  document,  but  an  ex  parte  document  of  second- 
rate  value  as  evidence,  and  the  device  of  propping 
its  authority  by  the  manager's  statement  on  oath  is 
distinctly  contrary  to  principle."  The  Commissioners 
here  are  rather  hard  on  Mr.  Gallagher.  They  expect 
him  to  know,  what  his  antecedents  gave  them  no 
ground  to  hope  for,  Latin  and  jurisprudence.  He 
evidently  used  bondjide  in  ignorance  of  its  meaning, 
his  own  intention  being  expressed  by  the  words 
"  accurate,"  "  correct ; "  while,  as  to  the  other  branch, 
prmciplcs  are  not  permitted  to  be  stumbling-blocks  in 
the  way  of  West  India  legislation.  But,  as  a  fact, 
these  injudicious  provisions  appear  rarely  to  work  any 
practical  injustice,  since  the  right  under  the  law  is 
rarely  enforced.  The  power,  however,  which  it,  in 
conjunction  with  the  large  bounty,  puts  in  the  hand 
of  the  emplo3^er  of  putting  the  screw  upon  an  immi- 
grant to  re-indenture  is  one  which  it  would  be  good 
policy  to  withdraw.  For  the  terms  of  imprisonment 
alone,  it  would  every  way  be  better  that  they  should 
be  counted  as  part  of  the  service.  It  would  have  a 
beneficial  effect  in  restraining  the  employer,  not  un- 
duly, from  too  frequent  appeals  to  the  magistrate, 
with  the  certainty  of  absolutely  losing  the  time  of  the 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  igj 

labourer  in  case  of  a  conviction.  The  equitable  addi- 
tion of  lost  days,  which  I  presently  propose,  should 
be  rendered  incapable  of  misuse  as  a  threat,  by 
making  it  subject  to  the  provision  that,  in  every  case 
in  which  such  lost  days  have  been  proved,  they  must 
peremptorily  be  added  to  the  old  indenture  before  a 
new  one  is  permitted.  But  I  say,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  policy  of  imprisonment  under  the  Labour 
Laws  will  bear  the  test  of  examination. 

Imprisonment  for  breach  of  a  civil  contract  is 
opposed  to  modern,  if  not  indeed  to  ancient,  English 
notions  of  freedom,  and  is  on  principle  open  to  serious 
criticisms.  By  the  common  law — so  high  a  reverence 
had  our  Saxon  forefathers  for  the  idea  of  personal 
freedom — "  ^/le  body  of  a  freeman  could  not  be  made 
subject  to  distress  or  imprisonment  by  contract,  but  only  by 
jndginent."  Under  our  Master  and  Servants  Acts, 
it  is  now  possible  for  a  man  in  England  to  enter  into 
an  agreement  for  a  term  of  service,  a  wilful  breach  of 
which  exposes  him  to  imprisonment  for  three  months 
with  hard  labour.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  an  enact- 
ment so  invidious  blotted  from  our  statute  book.  Is 
it  policy  to  permit  any  man  to  make  a  contract  based 
on  such  a  contingency  ?  Is  it  well  to  record  in  the 
laws,  in  a  concrete  form,  the  inequality  of  rich  and 
poor  ? 

For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  hesitate  to  express  a 
strong  opinion  against  the  imprisonment  of  Coolies 
or  any  other  labourers  for  breach  of  contract,  a  re- 
pugnance confirmed  the  more  I  inquired  and  thought 
about  the  immigration  system.  I  know  the  defenders 
of  this  provision  will  say  (and  say  with  much  plausi- 
bility) that  the  labourer  has  no  other  amends  to  make 
— he  must  give  his  body  for  the  sin  of  his  soul.  The 
master  you  can  mulct  in  money,  and  goods,  and 
credit,  and  social  standing  ;  but  the  pariah — without 
wealth,  or  possessions,  or  credit,  or  position—  nothing 


iq8  the  coolie, 

but  his  bare  poor  skin — full  of  bones,  thews,  and 
sinews — you  must,  like  another  Shylock,  in  another 
way,  take  your  terms  out  of  that.  God  help  me  if  I 
could  do  it,  were  there  never  a  stroke  of  work  done  on 
any  property  of  mine !  And  when  you  attentively 
look  into  the  effect  of  it,  you  v/ill  see  how  it  de- 
moralises the  subject.  Should  he  complain  of  his 
master's  breach  of  contract,  he  sees  the  latter  asked 
to  pay  a  monetary  fine,  while  he,  for  a  converse 
breach,  suffers  as  a  felon.  Repeat  that  operation  a 
lew  times,  and  then  behold  the  sort  of  man  you  have 
made.  Hardened,  harassed,  unwilling,  shirking, — 
broken  perhaps  in  spirit;  rightly  or  wrongly  indignant 
that  there  is  one  law  for  the  rich  and  another  for  the 
poor, — what  kind  of  work  do  you  get  out  of  him  ?  Is 
it  hopeful,  energetic,  strengthful,  willing  ?  or  is  it 
such  as  you  would  get  out  of  your  stubborn  child  if 
you  stood  over  him  with  a  dog-whip  r  You  have 
no  right  to  inflict  on  a  man  a  punishment  dispro- 
portioned  to  his  offence.  Wherein  any  law  has 
failed  to  adjust  with  tolerable  accuracy  offence 
and  penalty,  it  is,  and  must  be,  not  only  unjust  but 
injurious.  Were  it  to  be  proved  that  such  a  provi- 
sion is  essential  to  a  system,  it  were  better  the 
system  should  not  exist.  But  I  do  not  believe  it  to 
be  essential.  Where  wages  are  sufficient  to  main- 
tain in  comfort  an  average  Coolie,  regard  being  had 
to  the  existing  prices  of  staple  articles  of  food  in  the 
country — a)id  he  ought  not  to  be  ijupoi'ted  into  any  country 
where  that  condition  does  not  ordinarily  exist — I  suggest 
that  the  proper  and  just  method  of  punishing  him  for 
breach  of  contract  would  be  for  the  magistrate  to 
mulct  him  in  a  small  weekly  sum  for  two  or  three 
weeks — taking  care,  however,  not  to  make  the  fine 
so  severe  as  virtually  to  reduce  the  strength  of  the 
labourer;  or,  it  may  be,  peremptorily  to  add  lost 
days,  proved   in  court  from   week   to  week,  to   the 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  igg 

term  of  his  indenture.  This  would,  in  the  long-run, 
and  as  to  the  general  body  of  immigrants,  be  far 
more  effectual  than  imprisonment  to  repress  their, 
indolent  or  wanton  breaches  of  agreement,  and  would, 
moreover,  have  upon  its  face  an  equity  easily  recog- 
nised by  the  general  body  of  their  fellows.  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  the  importance  of  creating  and 
fostering  a  healthy  public  opinion  among  the  im- 
migrants has  been  too  little  regarded  by  planters  and 
planting  legislators.  With  tact  and  judicious  legisla- 
tion they  might  turn  this  hint  to  good  account. 

2.  The  second  point  is  as  to  the  policy  of  permitting 
re-indentures  at  all,  and  for  what,  if  any,  length  of 
time.  Considerable  changes  have  taken  place  in  the 
Colonial  legislation  on  this  subject.  The  Home 
Government  seems  to  have  been  loth  even  to  permit 
a  first  indenture  to  extend  over  so  long  a  period  as 
five  years ;  *  but  when  it  was  shown  to  be  impossible, 
or  at  all  events  difficult,  for  the  planters  on  any 
shorter  period  of  indenture  to  work  out  the  expenses 
of  obtaining  the  labourer,  that  point  was  conceded. 
But,  as  the  Commissioners  show,  it  was  conceded  in 
contemplation  of  the  object  of  preparing  and  acclima- 
tising the  immigrant  to  be  a  free  labourer  at  the  end 
of  that  term.  Then  it  was  anticipated  short  inden- 
tures or  free  service  would  provide  sufficient  facilities 
to  the  planter  for  securing  the  labour.  But,  by 
Ordinance  4  of  1864,  an  immense  lever,  apparently 
unnoticed  by  the  Colonial  Office,  was  given  to  the 
employers,  since  the  only  further  contract  empowered 
by  that  law  was  a  contract  of  re-indenture  for  five 
years  certain.  This  ran  directly  counter  to  the  drift  of 
the  opinion  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  in  favour  of  free 
labour  and  short  terms.  It  placed  the  Coolie  in  an 
unfortunate  position,  because  he  was  tempted  with 
the  $50  bounty,  and  in  some  cases  with  85  or.Sio  extra 
*  Report,  &c.,  U  232—242. 


200  THE  COOLIE. 

inducement  from  the  planter  himself;  and  if  he  did 
not  accept  this  he  found  himself  denuded  of  the 
advantages  of  free  houses,  hospitals,  &c.  Hence  "  the 
effect  of  later  legislation  has  been  to  keep  the  immi- 
grant population  as  a  whole  out  of  the  free  labour 
market.  It  is  true  that  no  man  is  bound  to  indenture 
a  second  time,  but  care  has  been  taken  so  to  arrange  the 
incidoifs  of  the  system  as  to  induce  him  with  a  very 
strong  indiuofient  to  re-inde7itiire*  For  this  purpose 
the  supervising  duties  of  the  Immigration  Agents  have 
been  postponed  to  the  offering  of  greater  facilities  for 
re-indenture.  A  harsh  system  of  law  has  been  kept 
up,  not  so  much  for  use  as  that  condonation  for 
offences  under  it  might  be  bartered  against  re-inden- 
ture. The  position  of  a  free  immigrant  disposed  to 
remain  in  the  colony  has  not  received  that  considera- 
tion from  the  legislature  which  a  new  country 
needing  population  should  have  afforded  to  such  an 
element ;  and  the  bounty,  always  a  questionable 
means  of  inducement  when  employed  to  persuade 
those  in  a  dependent  position  to  refrain  from  claiming 
their  independence,  has  been  kept  at  a  high  rate,  in 
order  that  the  inducement  might  be  sufficient.  .  .  . 
//  ivoiild  seem  to  be  a  co?icession  that  i7?imigratio7i,  so  far 
as  the  Coolies  are  concerned,  has  failed  to  fulfil  its  first 
purposes  if,  after  bei7ig  acclimatised,  after  learning  their 
work,  and  after  paying  their  passage  out,  they  must  still 
be  brought  under  iiidenture  after  indenture,  and  not 
encouraged  to  take  their  station  in  the  coimtry  as  free 
labourers."^ 

Thus  speak  the  Commissioners  upon  one  of  the  most 
serious  and  fatal  defects  of  the  immigration  system  in 
British  Guiana.  In  Trinidad  it  has  been  directly  met 
by  legislation.  By  the  Trinidad  Ordinance  13  of 
1870,  the  first  indenture  is  to  be  for  five  years;  but 
it  provides  for  the  re-engagement  in  these  terms  :  J — 

*  What  is  the  use  of  a  Governor  if  he  cannot  resist  a  legislative  current 
like  this  ? 

t  Report,  ice,  H  249.  J  Trinidad  Ordinance  13  of  1870,  sec.  20. 


INDENTURES,  REGISTERS,  ETC.  20 1 

**  When  and  so  often  as  any  immigrant  who  shall 
have  already  completed,  or  shall  hereafter  complete, 
an  industrial  residence  of  five  years  within  this  colon)^, 
shall  be  willing  to  enter  into  any  engagement  to 
labour  for  any  employer,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the 
Agent-General  of  Immigrants  from  time  to  time,  if 
he  shall  see  fit,  and  on  payment  to  such  immigrant 
by  such  employer  such  premium  or  bounty,  if  any,  as 
may  be  agreed  upon  between  such  immigrant  and 
such  employer,  to  indenture  such  immigrant  to  such 
employer  for  such  time,  not  exceeding  twelve  months, 
as  may  be  agreed  upon  between  such  immigrant  and 
such  employer,  and  every  such  indenture  may  be 
according  to  the  form  in  the  schedule  D  to  this  ordi- 
nance ;  and  the  Agent-General  of  Immigrants  shall 
keep  a  register  of  such  immigrants,  and  shall  enter 
opposite  the  names  of  such  immigrants  the  day  on 
which,  and  the  time  for  which,  such  indenture  shall 
be  made." 

I  have  been  informed  by  the  Governor  and  by  one 
of  the  principal  planters  of  Trinidad  that  the  one-year 
system  works  well,  and,  while  encouraging  inde- 
pendence in  the  Coolie,  exercises  also  on  the  mas- 
ter a  beneficial  restraint,  since  he  can  only  keep  his 
best  immigrants  from  year  to  year  by  kindly  treat- 
ment. 

There  is  all  the  more  reason  for  enforcing  the  adop- 
tion of  this  provision,  that  the  immigrants  are  not 
entitled  to  their  return  passage  until  the  end  of  ten 
years,  and  therefore  are  generally  bound  to  remain 
in  the  colony  during  five  years  after  their  first  inden- 
ture has  expired,  and  also  that  their  acclimatisation, 
and  consequent  increase  in  value,  help  to  place 
them  in  a  more  independent  position  towards  the 
employers,  a  gain  to  them  which  should  be  carefully 
guarded,  instead  of  being  imperilled  by  legal  regu- 
lations. It  is  a  very  grave  fact  to  me,  that  out  of 
40,220  persons  under  indenture,  between  17,000  and 


202  THE  COOLIE. 

18,000  have  re-indentured,  and  of  these  some  are  in 
their  fourth,  fifth,  or  even  sixth  indenture — thirty- 
years  of  bond  labour !  *  A  fact  this  to  awaken  the 
sympathy  of  the  most  indifferent  spectator.  The 
planter  argues  that  it  is  essential  to  his  interests,  to 
the  safety  of  the  capital  he  invests,  that  he  should  be 
assured,  if  he  risks  his  money  upon  it,  a  continuous 
supply  of  labour. 

Why,  after  having  this  for  five  years,  even  though  it 
be  admitted  that  those  five  years  be  the  least  valuable 
of  the  immigrant's  service,  he  should  be  allowed  to 
claim  over  capitalists  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  whose 
fortunes  are  always  dependent  on  the  fluctuations  of 
a  free-labour  market,  this  additional  advantage,  it  is 
hard  to  see.  The  effects  upon  the  labourer  are  too 
clear  and  too  perilous  to  be  overlooked.  Not  only  is 
his  independence  at  stake,  but  the  hopes  of  his  trans- 
formation into  a  better  man.  The  Commissioners 
have  put  his  situation  in  a  striking  epigram  :  "  The 
Tc-indenturing  Coolie  has  only  once  in  his  industrial 
residence  of  ten  years  the  opportunity  of  acting  and 
judging  as  a  free  man."  The  immigrants  themselves 
are  not  indifferent  to  this  question.  They  expressed 
to  us  their  sense  of  the  iron  rigidity  of  the  system, 
which  seemed  to  leave  them  no  alternative  but  five 
more  years  of  bondage.  In  one  instance  cited  by  the 
Commissioners,  where  the  immigrants  of  Plantation 
Ha7nburg  had  been  to  town  to  see  Mr.  Des  Voeux, 
they,  on  their  return,  refused  to  re-indenture  until 
the  Commissioners  had  reported,  as  they  had  hopes 
that  the  Report  would  be  in  favour  of  one  year's 
re-indenture. t  The  Commissioners  have  made  this 
recommendation  very  strongly, J  and  it  must  neces- 
sarily be  one  condition  of  any  further  extension  of 
Coolie  immigration. 

♦  Report,  &c.,  H  523.  f  lb.,  U  522.  %  lb.,  If  513. 


203 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

WOMEN  AND   MARRIAGES. 

IN  considering  the  further  provisions  of  the  Immi- 
gration Ordinances,  we  may  next  turn  to  the 
women.  By  section  48  of  the  principal  ordinance, 
a  Chinese  woman  may  be  allotted  to  a  plantation 
and  indentured  to  reside  there  for  five  years,  but 
is  not  *'  bound  to  work  or  perform  any  labour 
whatever."  Yet  it  will  not  be  imagined  by  any  one 
that  she  is  intended  to  be  merely  ornamental.  If  not 
married,  she  may  assist  to  keep  her  male  fellow-coun- 
trymen on  the  premises.  The  dark  problem  which 
this  suggests  is  well  known  to  be  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  any  in  the  Coolie  system.  The  sexes  among 
the  Coolies  in  British  Guiana  are  in  the  proportion  of 
10,000  women  to  29,000  men;  a  serious  disproportion, 
but  a  far  more  favourable  one  than  we  should  be  led 
to  hope  for  from  a  consideration  of  the  circumstances. 
The  inducements  to  women  are  few;  the  demand  for 
women,  apart  from  the  moral  or  purely  animal  ques- 
tion, is  necessarily  a  subordinate  one.  Hence  the 
number  of  women  already  in  British  Guiana  is  one 
of  those  features  which  is  creditable  to  the  good 
sense  and  good  feeling  of  the  employers.  It  is  true, 
this  is  a  comparatively  recent  improvement.  The 
Chinese  immigration  seems  to  have  been  frightfully 
disproportionate,  and  the  reader  will  perhaps  have 


204  THE  COOLIE. 

noted  with  surprise  the  number  of  Chinese  women  in 
proportion  to  men  at  Schoon  Ord,  as  returned  by  its 
proprietor,  namely,  2  to  114.  The  disproportion,  how- 
ever, is  still  great,  and  gives  rise  to  some  of  the  most 
anxious  difficulties  of  the  Executive.  These  diffi- 
culties are  twofold.  1.  Those  which  arise  out  of 
improper  relations  between  employers  or  their  sub- 
ordinates and  Coolie  women,  with  the  naturally  result- 
ing complications,  evils,  and  injuries.  2.  Those  which 
arise  among  and  between  the  Coolies  themselves. 

The  readers  of  the  previous  pages  will  perhaps 
already  have  gathered  enough  to  indicate  to  them 
the  perilous  aspect  of  the  body  social  and  politic  in 
this  peculiar  colony.  Very  few  whites,  and  those 
whites  absolutely  ascendant ;  a  large,  lazy,  pro- 
digiously sensual  and  fecund  black  population  ; 
nearly  fifty  thousand  Coolies,  of  whom  a  little  under 
one-third  are  women,  scattered  over  estates  through 
a  long  range  of  country.  On  each  estate  the 
manager,  the  young  overseers,  the  drivers — the  whole 
of  them  generally  unmarried.  It  needs  no  prurient 
fancy  to  conceive  of  the  difficulties  of  such  a  situation. 
From  the  number  of  complaints  that  reached  me,  I 
was  assured  that  an  investigation  into  the  morality  of 
some  of  the  estates  would  reveal  most  revolting  cir- 
cumstances.* If  we  disregard  altogether  the  planters 
and  their  assistants,  with  the  temptation  held  out  to 
them  to  use  force,  or  fraud,  or  injustice  in  the  pursuit 
of  their  passions,  enough  occurs  in  the  Coolie  com- 
munities to  shock  the  steadiest  nerves.  In  one  case 
I  saw  a  CooHe  come  to  Des  Voeux  w4th  his  wife,  a 
fine-looking  girl,  who  stood  meekly  by  his  side  while 
he  expressed  a  resolution  to  "  chop  her  up " — the 
favourite  method  among  these  people  of  abolishing 
matrimonial  inconveniences,  the  cutlass  being  a 
handy  weapon.     He  informed  us  that  the  manager 

•  See  the  Report,  &c.,  H  865. 


WOMEN  AND  MARRIAGES.  205 

nad"  arranged  with  her  that  she  was  to  visit  him  at 
his  house.  On  closer  inquiry  it  turned  out  that  the 
man  was  not  imbued  with  any  holy  indignation  at 
her  infidelity,  but  that  the  basis  of  the  quarrel  arose 
out  of  the  disposition  of  the  profits.  These  she  was 
desirous  of  retaining  for  herself,  and  expending  on 
silver  ornaments,  while  he  wished  to  assert  his  marital 
rights,  if  he  had  any,  over  the  price  of  his  own  confu- 
sion !  The  picture  of  morality  on  all  hands  here  dis- 
closed is  sad  enough,  and  could  be  intensified  by  other 
statements.  One  Coolie  missionary  employed  by  the 
Wesley ans  told  me,  if  I  remember  rightly,  that  seven 
men  were  hung  in  the  colony  in  one  week  for  wife- 
murder.  At  Leonora  I  saw  an  unhappy  woman 
whose  face  and  body  had  been  frightfully  disfigured 
with  a  cutlass  by  her  '*  man." 

The  Ordinance  4  of  1864  directly  recognises  the 
difiiculties  of  the  case,  and  endeavours  to  provide  a 
remedy.     By  section  125  it  is  enacted  : — 

"  Whereas  it  is  expedient  if  possible  to  prevent  the 
repeated  acts  of  violence  committed  by  male  Indian 
immigrants  upon  their  wives,  or  reputed  wives,  or  the 
women  with  whom  they  cohabit :  Be  it  enacted,  that 
if  the  wife  or  reputed  wife,  or  the  female  Indian  immi- 
grant with  whom  any  male  Indian  immigrant  may 
cohabit,  or  any  other  person,  shall  exhibit  an  informa- 
tion before  any  stipendiary  justice  that  any  such  male 
immigrant  did  unlawfully  threaten  to  murder,  wound, 
beat,  or  ill-treat  any  such  female  immigrant,  and  that 
from  the  threats  so  used  by  such  male  immigrant 
towards  such  female  immigrant  she  is  afraid,  or  that 
such  person  apprehends  such  male  immigrant  may 
murder  her  or  do  her  some  grievous  bodily  harm  or 
injury,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  such  justice,  and  he  is 
hereby  required,  to  inquire  on  oath  into  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  to  order,  if  he  shall  deem  it  neces- 
sary so  to  do,  the  removal  to  some  other  plantation 


2o6  THE  COOLIE 

of  such  one  of  the  parties  concerned  as  in  his  discre- 
tion he  shall  select,  and  in  the  meantime  to  commit 
the  offending  party,  with  or  without  hard  labour  ;  and 
such  justice  shall  forthwith  forward  a  copy  of  the 
proceedings  to  the  Immigration  Agent-General,  to  be 
by  him  laid  before  the  Governor  for  approval." 

So  soon  after  the  passing  of  that  ordinance  as  the 
1 2th  October,  1864,  a  circular  was  issued  by  Govern- 
ment, embodying  the  Attorney-General's  opinion  that 
the  magistrate  had,  under  the  above  enactment,  the 
power  to  order  the  removal  of  either  the  man  or 
woman,  or  even  a  third  party,  such  as  the  paramour. 

"  Still,  some  of  the  magistrates,  among  them  Mr. 
Ware,  hold  that  the  wording  of  the  clause  does  not 
bear  out  that  interpretation  of  it,  and  they  never 
remove  any  one  threatening  or  the  woman  threat- 
ened. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there  should 
be  any  doubt  upon  the  subject,  as  it  frequently 
happens  that  the  paramour  would  be  the  proper 
psrson  to  remove,  and  that  the  husband  and  wife 
should  not  be  separated.  Such  we  find  to  be  your 
Excellency's  opinion,  as  in  the  case  of  Toolsie, 
who  seduced  Suchmonia  from  her  husband  Seorani 
(No.  100  of  the  cases  received  from  the  Immigration 
Office).  In  that  your  Excellency  remarks,  '  It  has 
always  been  the  opinion  of  myself  and  Mr.  Crosby 
that  the  man  who  takes  away  the  woman  should  be 
removed,  if  the  circumstances  of  the  case  justify  this 
being  done.  To  remove  the  seducer  is  a  warning 
to  others.'  And  again,  in  a  more  recent  case,  in 
which  the  magistrate  recommended  that  Nusseebrue 
should  be  removed,  who  had  left  her  husband,  Noor 
Ali,  and  went  to  live  with  Konhaye,  who  threatened 
her  life,  and  the  Acting  Immigration  Agent-General 
supported  the  magistrate's  recommendation  (No.  105 
of  the  above  casesj,  your  Excellency  observed,  if  the 
woman  is  removed  we   separate   man   and  wife — a 


WOMEN  AND  MARRIAGES.  207 

proceeding  to  be  avoided.  The  danger  to  be  avoided 
arises  from  threats  made  by  Konhaye  against  Noor 
Ali,  and  that  will  be  removed  by  the  transfer  of 
Konhaye  to  another  estate — the  woman's  life  has  not 
.been  threatened  by  her  husband.  And  to  such  an 
extent  was  this  principle  in  one  case  followed,  that 
when  Chee  Shee  left  her  husband,  Woo-a-lee,  for 
another,  and  Woo-a-lee  threatened  to  commit  suicide, 
on  the  case  (No.  24)  being  submitted  to  your  Excel- 
lency, Mr.  Crosby  remarked,  the  woman  having  de- 
clared that  she  would  not  return  to  her  husband,  the 
Governor  will  no  doubt  order  the  man  Chin-a-foo  to 
be  transferred  to  another  estate,  if  possible,  in  Ber- 
bice,  and  not  separate  husband  and  wife,  whatever 
she  may  say. 

"  This  your  Excellency  approved,  and  we  regret 
it  has  noi  been  possible  to  follow  the  principle  tip  in  all 
cases." 

"  The  case  of  Nobeebuxus  (No.  130)  is  another  of  a 
similar  kind.  He  came  from  India  eight  years  ago 
with  his  wife  Astoreah,  who  left  him  soon  after  their 
arrival  in  this  colony,  and  went  to  live  with  ]\Iaighoo 
for  some  seven  years,  but  she  left  him,  and  returned  to 
her  husband,  Nobeebuxus  ;  upon  that  Maighoo  threat- 
ened her  life,  and  the  magistrate,  thinking  Nobee- 
buxus the  seducer,  recommended  that  she  should 
be  removed.  It  would  have  caused  a  curious  com- 
plication if  Astoreah  had  claimed  the  right  under 
section  70,  Ordinance  4  of  1867,  to  be  indentured  on 
the  same  estate  as  her  husband,  or  of  commuting  for 
the  rest  of  her  servdce. 

"  But  these  cases,  though  tried  by  the  magistrate 
under  section  125,  may  have  been  treated  by  the 
Executive  under  section  112,  which  has  been  used  to 
separate  husband  and  wife  quarrelling  without  any 
feeling  of  jealousy,  as  will  be  seen  in  case  No.  39, 
where  Jandhoo  left  her  husband,  and  refused  to  re- 


2o8  THE  COOLIE. 

turn,  because  she  was  unable  to  work  for  both,  as 
she  had  been  doing  for  some  time  past,  and  he 
became  violent  and  threatened  to  do  somebody — it  is 
presumed  Jandhoo — some  bodily  harm.  This  case,  Mr. 
Crosby  thought,  came  under  section  125,  and  ought 
to  have  been  referred  for  the  magistrate  to  try,  instead 
of  being  disposed  of  on  a  request  from  the  manager 
under  section  112;  but  your  Excellency  thought 
otherwise,  being  of  opinion  that  it  was  not  worth  while 
to  run  any  risk,  and  ordered  the  man's  removal." 

The  law  or  the  practice  both  of  Governor  and 
magistrates  appears  to  have  been  full  of  incongruity 
on  this  point,  for  the  Commissioners  go  on  to  say : — 

"  Mr.  Huggins,  on  the  other  hand,  when  Dookhan,  a 
free  immigrant  (case  No.  32),  was  brought  before  him 
for  using  threatening  language  to  Sundolee,  with  whom 
he  had  formerly  cohabited,  but  deserted  for  another 
woman,  held  that  Ordinance  20  of  1856  was  not 
applicable  to  a  case  of  this  nature ;  and  because  the 
man,  who  was  a  free  immigrant,  could  not  be  re- 
moved, he  recommended  the  removal  of  Sundolee, 
forgetting  that  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  Dookhan 
following  her  if  he  wished  to  carry  out  his  threat. 
Imprisonment  and  an  order  to  find  security  would,  it 
appears  to  us,  have  been  more  appropriate. 

"  So  in  case  No.  69,  when  Sooful  was  brought  before 
him,  charged  with  having  assaulted  and  beaten  Rook- 
moneah,  he  took  no  notice  of  the  assault,  but  proceed- 
ing under  section  125,  recommended  Sooful's  removal. 
The  Acting  Attorney- General  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  the  case  did  not  fall  within  the  provisions  of 
section  125,  and  Sooful  was  accordingly  removed 
under  section  112.  We  think  that  without  multiply- 
ing cases,  we  have  given  enough  to  show  that 
removal  of  somebody,  either  under  section  125  or  112, 
appears  to  be  considered  the  panacea  for  all  disputes 
and  quarrels  between  men  and  women. 


« 


WOMEN  AND  MARRIAGES.  209 

"We  wished  that  Mr.  Ware  had  punished  for  the 
assault  when  a  distinct  charge  under  that  head  was 
brought  before  him,  and  that  he  and  all  the  magis- 
trates had  adopted  the  course  pursued  by  Mr. 
Dampier,  and  punished  the  husband  for  assault  or 
threats,  and  then,  perhaps,  it  would  have  occurred  to 
the  magistrates  that  the  provision  of  section  11, 
Ordinance  10  of  1866,  might  be  put  in  force  against 
the  seducers  of  married  women. 

"  It  is  remarkable  that  a  case  under  that  section 
was  brought  before  Mr.  Dampier  in  November,  1869 
(case  No.  80),  in  which  Seewotohul  was  charged  with 
enticing  Mahadaye  away  from  her  husband,  Boodhoo, 
and  the  manager  apprehended  that  Boodhoo  would 
do  Mahadaye  some  bodily  harm.  ]\Ir.  Dampier  tried 
the  case,  Seewotohul  being  the  defendant,  not  Bood- 
hoo ;  but  instead  of  punishing  the  defendant  for  the 
offence  with  which  he  was  charged,  he  recommended 
his  removal  from  the  estate.  Your  Excellency  ex- 
pressed your  regret  that  the  man  was  not  punished 
under  section  1 1,  Ordinance  10  of  i860,  as  you  wished 
to  prove  to  immigrants  the  advantages  they  have  by 
becoming  man  and  wife  by  the  modes  sanctioned  by 
the  ordinances. 

"  So  in  another  case  which  came  before  Mr.  Ware 
(No.  84),  a  husband  Deenah  was  charged  with  threaten- 
ing to  cut  his  wife  Bussunteah's  throat ;  tJicre  was  no 
doubt  of  their  being  man  and  wife,  and  she  was  said  to 
be  living  with  a  man  named  Tolab  ;  but  there  was  no 
one  apparently  to  advise  them,  and  instead  of  a  case 
being  preferred  against  Tolab,  the  magistrate  had 
the  case  brought  before  him  under  section  125,  and 
recotn/nended  that  Deenah  should  be  removed. 

*'  Mr.  Crosby,  in  that  case,  minutes  that  section  125, 
Ordinance  4  of  1864,  was  not  passed  in  ignorance  of 
Ordinance  10  of  i860,  but  in  contemplation  of  that 
ordinance  being  amended  if  not  repealed,  and  further 

P 


2  10  THE  COOLIE. 

penal  clauses  inserted  for  the  punishment  of  adultery. 
A  man  may  now  be  punished  for  enticing  a  woman 
from  her  husband  ;  but  there  is  no  punishment  for  the 
woman,  nor  any  for  a  man  forsaking  or  discarding 
his  wife.  And  in  a  population  where  there  are,  as 
we  have  before  remarked,  only  10,202  females'  to 
29,767  men,  a  provision  might  be  introduced,  punish- 
ing married  men  for  adultery ;  the  proviso  would 
not  be  repugnant  to  the  ideas  of  people  who  con- 
template the  social  state  of  the  Indian  and  Chinese 
immigrants,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  section 
10,  Ordinance  10  of  i860. 

"  If  penal  clauses  were  introduced  and  flogging 
made  a  part  of  the  punishment  that  could  be  awarded 
to  the  men,  and  '  disgrace '  by  having  their  heads 
shaved  a  punishment  to  the  women,  we  should  strike 
at  the  root  of  the  evil,  and  the  provisions  of  section 
125  would  very  seldom  be  called  into  use,  and  section 
1 1 2  need  never  be  used  in  these  cases.  We  are  well 
aware  that  the  above  suggestions  are  opposed  to  the 
spirit  of  modern  penal  legislation ;  but  the  state  of 
society  we  find  here  among  the  immigrants  requires 
exceptional  legislation.  The  Indian  immigrants,  on 
whose  condition  we  are  called  upon  to  report,  are 
brought  into  this  colony  in  very  unequal  proportions 
in  regard  to  sex,  and  the  spirit  of  the  laws  they  find 
here  is  not  properly  adapted  to  the  state  of  society  in 
which  they  are  placed.  We  know  it  may  be  urged 
that  severe  and  degrading  punishments  are  steps  in 
a  wrong  direction,  and  that  we  admit ;  but  sometimes 
in  an  exceptional  case  and  for  a  particular  purpose  it 
is  not  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  penal  law  to 
stamp  out  the  evil  by  strong  measures.  If  a  due 
proportion  of  men  and  women  came  to  this  country, 
or  if  there  were  a  proper  proportion  of  w^omen  in  the 
country,  exceptional  legislation  would  not  be  neces- 
sary ;  but  in  the  absence  of  all  prospect  of  such  being 


WOMEN  AND  MARRIAGES.  211 

the  case  for  a  long  time  to  come,  we  see  no  hopes  of 
overcoming  the  evil,  except  by  legislation  in  a  direc- 
tion that  would  not  be  tolerated,  because  it  is  not 
required  in  better  populated  and  more  civilised  parts 
of  the  world.  There  are  few  of  the  women  we  imagine 
who  come  to  this  country  to  whom  the  punishment  of 
having  their  heads  shaved  would  be  a  novelty,  at 
least  in  idea.  Very  many  of  them  tell  us  they  have 
come  from  Lucknow,  and  that  territory  has  not  been 
long  enough  under  the  British  rule  for  all  recollection 
of  the  punishment  to  have  passed  away  from  the 
memory  of  the  inhabitants  of  it.  But  the  probability 
is  that  if  the  law  were  passed,  even  the  abandoned 
creatures  we  find  coming  out  here  would  be  coerced 
into  propriety,  probably  without  the  law  ever  being 
enforced." 

I  can  hardly  agree  that  it  is  necessary  to  resort 
to  the  extreme  measures  here  recommended  by  the 
Commissioners.  It  seems  a  somewhat  startling  thing 
that  we  should  first  of  all  create  an  anomalous  state  of 
society,  should  introduce  into  it  a  person  unprepared 
by  education  or  habits  to  endure  it,  and  then  by  such 
singularly  harsh  artificial  measures  force  him  to  adapt 
himself  to  it.  Looking  at  it  in  this  way,  the  policy  of 
the  immigration  system  cannot  be  acquitted  of  a 
serious  blot.  In  our  anxiety  to  make  money,  we 
place  a  number  of  labourers  in  a  situation  of  peculiar 
■  temptation,  of  peculiar  trial  to  their  nature,  and  when 
they  find  it  difficult  to  adapt  themselves  to  that  situa- 
tion we  propose  to  hang  them,  or  flog  them  and  shave 
their  heads.  Thus  the  law  is  their  schoolmaster,  but 
I  fear  it  takes  them  to  the  devil. 

Some  of  the  forms  of  marriage  produced  by  the 
Commissioners  are  very  curious,  so  many  as  six 
"  kinds  of  marriage "  appearing  to  be  in  vogue,  of 
which  only  four  are  recognised  by  the  law.* 

*  Report,  &c.,  H  884,  885. 


212  THE  COOLIE. 

"  Of  the  130  cases  we  have  before  us,  we  find  that 
in  37  persons  claim  to  be  married,  one  according 
to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England  (case  No.  i), 
apparently  converts;  another  couple  (No.  117)  say 
they  were  married  on  board  ship.  The  ceremony 
then  appears  to  consist  in  signing  the  following 
paper : — 

Ship  Shand,  Sea,  October  21,  1869. 
I,  Doolenie,  the  daughter  of  Akaloo,  take  thee  Damree,  the  son  of 
Makhan,  to  be  my  wedded  husband,  to  have  and  to  hold  from  this  day 
forward,  for  better,  for  worse,  for  richer,  for  poorer,  in  sickness  and  in 
health,  to  love  and  to  cherish  till  death  us  do  part,  according  to  God's 
holy  ordinance,  and  thereto  I  plight  thee  my  troth. 

Signed _____^__ 

Witnesses — 

1st.  Adhur  Chander  Doss,  L.M.S.,  Surgeon. 

2nd.  Henry  Le  Pau,  Master. 

3id. 

A  similar  paper  was  signed  by  Damree  and  wit- 
nessed by  the  same  people.  Three  marriages  are  said 
to  have  been  under  Ordinance  10  of  i860;  29  were 
married  in  India,  and  i  in  China. 

Of  the  marriages  of  doubtful  validity,  i  is  a  mar- 
riage by  bond  (case  94)  succeeding  to  a  written  be- 
trothal. The  papers  are  as  follows,  though  there  is 
some  difficulty  in  recognising  the  same  man's  name 
in  the  different  ways  in  which  it  is  spelt  in  these  two 
papers : — 

Plantation  Enmore,  27  September,  1869. 
I,  Nellinia,  of  Plantation  Annandale,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Paul,  county 
of  Demerary,  colony  of  British  Guiana,  do  hereby  agree  to  marry  to  Year 
Anny  Yew,  of  Plantation  Enmore,  in  the  parish  and  county  aforesaid  ; 
and  from  the  said  Year  Anny  Yew  I  have  this  day  taken  the  sum  of  thirty 
dollars  in  way  of  binding  the  bargain,  I  have  agreed  to  live  with  him  at 
once  until  such  time  he  shall  be  able  to  marry  me,  that  is,  in  three  months' 
time.  I  have  also  agreed  to  pay  to  the  said  Year  Anny  Yew  the  sum  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  tliat  is,  on  condition,  that  is  to  say,  should  I 
leave  him  for  any  other  man. 

Nellema  her  X  mark. 
Witnesses — 

Joseph  A.  Bostick, 
Mootoo  Sammy. 

27  th  September,  1869. 


WOMEN  AND  MARRIAGES.  213 

An  agreement  entered  into  this  twenty-fifth  day  of  April,  1870,  between 
the  man  Ermeinen  and  the  female  Nelliama.  The  female  Nelliama  agrees 
to  live  with  the  man  Ermeinen  as  husband,  and  the  man  Ermeinen  agrees 
to  live  with  the  female  Nelliama  as  wife.  They  both  agree  to  live  with 
each  other  as  man  and  wife  in  the  presence  of  these  witnesses.  The  man 
Emeinen  agrees  also  to  pay  all  her  debts,  which  debts  amount  to  thirty- 
seven  dollars,  which  she  owed  to  the  man  Ramsammy  (No.  7)  of  said 
estate  ;  and  the  woman  Nelliama  agrees  in  case  she  leaves  the  man 
Ermeinen  to  pay  the  sum  of  forty  dollars  in  addition  to  the  money  paid  by 
the  man  Ermeinen,  and  which  she  agrees  to  pay  in  case  she  leaves  him  for 
another  man. 

Plantation  Enmore,  2Sth  April,  1870. 

The  cross  of  Nelliama  X  her  marl?. 
The  cross  of  Ermeinen  X  bis  mark. 


Witnesses — 


Shaikadam  X  bis  mark. 
Chenalumbir  X  bis  mark. 


It  will  probably  be  the  reader's  impression,  that 
marriage  among  Coolies  in  British  Guiana  is  in  a 
state  of  chaos. 


2U 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

IMMIGRATION  LAWS   AFFECTING  THE   COOLIE. 

THE  enactments  immediately  relating  to  the 
mutual  performance  of  contract  on  the  part 
of  the  Coolie  and  of  his  employer  next  demand  review. 
These  were  consolidated  in  the  Ordinance  4  of  1864, 
and  afterwards  amended  by  Ordinance  9  of  1868.  I 
propose  to  take  first  those  relating  to  the  Coolie. 

They  are  contained  in  sections  115 — 126  of  the 
earlier  ordinance  ;  some  of  these  sections,  however, 
referring  to  technical  points  of  no  importance  in  our 
present  inquiry,  and  to  the  female  difficulty  which 
has  been  discussed.  They  may  be  classified  in  this 
way  : — 

1.  The  obligations  of  labour;  times  and  tasks. 

2.  Provisions  against  desertion. 

3.  Provisions  for  securing  the  immigrant  his  free- 
dom during  the  periods  when  he  is  entitled  to  it. 

4.  Provisions  against  neglect  or  injury  of  employer's 
property. 

Before  entering  on  a  technical  discussion  of  the 
enactments  which  touch  this  important  branch  of  the 
subject,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that,  as  mentioned 
in  my  account  of  the  estates,  the  system  of  work  adopted 
in  British  Guiana  is,  as  a  rule,  that  by  task,  in  prefer- 
ence to  that  by  time.  The  payment  by  results,  which 
was  the  favourite  maxim  of  an  education  code,  is  the 


IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS.  215 

politic  principle  of  remuneration  adopted  by  the  sugar- 
planter.  It  was  the  plan  of  slavery ;  it  continues  to  be 
the  plan  under  the  indentureship.  Its  advantages  are 
readier  and  more  precise  reckoning,  with  the  saving 
of  an  elaborate  and  expensive  system  of  personal 
oversight. 

With  this  explanation,  the  reader  will  the  better  be 
prepared  to  consider  the  two  following  sections  of  the 
Ordinance  4  of  1864,  by  which  the  Coolies'  work  was 
regulated  :* — 

"115.  Every  indentured  immigrant  shall  perform 
five  days'  labour,  or  five  tasks,  in  every  week ;  and  in 
case  of  any  complaint  against  any  immigrant  for 
neglect  or  refusal  to  work,  it  shall  be  necessary,  in 
order  to  obtain  a  conviction,  to  prove  that  such  immi- 
grant has  neglected  or  refused  to  attend  any  time  not 
exceeding,  if  he  shall  be  employed  in  the  field,  seven 
hours  between  sunrise  and  sunset,  and  if  he  shall  be 
employed  in  the  estate's  buildings,  ten  hours  between 
the  hours  of  five  in  the  morning  and  eight  in  the 
evening.  And  if  such  complaint  shall  be  made  in 
respect  to  the  non-performance  of  task-work,  it  shall 
be  necessary,  in  order  to  obtain  a  conviction,  to  prove 
that  such  immigrant  has  not  performed  within  the 
week  five  tasks  of  the  extent  assigned  lor  the  same 
rate  of  wages  as  daily  tasks  to  the  Creole  labourers  of 
the  colony.  Provided  always,  that  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  magistrate  before  whom  any  complaint 
is  brought  under  this  section  to  inquire  and  ascertain 
how  long  the  immigrant  charged  has  been  in  the 
colony,  and  to  satisfy  himself  as  to  his  ability  to  per- 
form the  work  assigned  to  him.  And  if  it  should  ap- 
pear to  such  magistrate  that  such  immigrajit,  (Mther 
from  want  of  experience  or  from  bodily  infirmity,  is 
unable  to  perform  five  days'  labour  or  five  tasks  within 
the  week,  the  complaint  shall  be  dismissed.    Provided 

*  Sections  115  and  116,  4  of  1864. 


2i6  THE  COOLIE. 

further,  that  in  any  case  in  which  the  said  magistrate 
shall  be  of  opinion  that  such  immigrant  is  able  to 
perform  a  less  amount  of  work,  or  a  less  number  of 
tasks,  per  week,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  said  magis- 
trate by  order  to  assign  the  amount  of  work  or  num- 
ber of  tasks  per  week  to  be  performed  by  such  immi- 
grant during  the  time  to  be  fixed  in  such  order.  And 
such  order  may  be  continued  from  time  to  time  at  the 
discretion  of  the  said  magistrate ;  and  during  the 
continuance  in  force  of  such  order,  such  immigrant 
shall  be  liable  to  conviction  for  disobedience  thereof, 
in  the  same  manner  as  is  provided  in  the  case  of 
immigrants  neglecting  to  perform  the  full  amount  of 
work  prescribed  by  this  Ordinance. 

"ii6.  Any  indentured  immigrant  who  without 
reasonable  cause  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  attend  at 
the  daily  calling  over  of  the  names  of  the  immigrants 
on  the  muster-roll  at  the  time  and  place  hereinbefore 
mentioned ;  or  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  attend  at  the 
time  and  place  at  which  he  may  be  ordered  to  attend, 
to  perform  the  work  required  of  him  ;  or  shall  neglect 
or  refuse  to  begin  the  work  required  of  him  ;  or  shall 
leave  unfinished  any  work  required  to  be  performed 
by  him  ;  or  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  finish  any  work 
required  to  be  performed  by  him  ;  or  shall  be  absent 
from  his  work  without  leave  ;  or  shall  be  drunk  while 
employed  at  any  work  ;  or  shall  use  to  his  employer, 
or  any  overseer  or  headman,  or  other  person  placed 
by  such  employer  in  authority  over  him,  any  threat- 
ening, abusive,  or  insulting  words  or  behaviour ;  or 
shall  commit  any  nuisance  upon  or  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  any  dam  or  public  thoroughfare  of 
the  estate — shall,  on  being  convicted  thereof,  be 
deemed  guilty  cf  an  offence,  and  shall  pay  a  fine  not 
exceeding  $24,  or  be  imprisoned  with  hard  labour  for 
any  time  not  exceeding  one  month,  and  shall  in  addi- 
tion, it  the  convicting  justice  shall  think  fit,  forfeit  the 


IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS.  217 

whole   or   any   part   of  the  wages  due  to   him,  not 
exceeding  the  wages  of  one  week." 

If  the  perusal  of  these  sections  test  the  reader's 
patience,  and  any  admiration  he  may  be  disposed 
to  have  for  the  unknown  in  colonial  legislation, 
his  interest  in  them  may  be  roused  when  it  is  stated 
that,  wordy  as  they  are,  they  were  held  by  the  late 
Chief  Justice  to  be  inoperative  in  a  most  important 
part;  that  is  to  say,  that  no  conviction  could  take 
place  under  section  115,  and  that  the  term  "  task"  was 
practically  incapable  of  interpretation.  This  decision 
seems  to  be  a  fine  stretch  of  technical  art,  but  it  was  a 
decision  of  the  Superior  Court ;  it  was  notorious  in 
the  colony  ;  it  gave  rise  to  great  heart-burnings  ;  and, 
more  singular  than  all,  proof  was  afforded  to  the  Com- 
missioners that  after  this  decision  had  been  given, 
affirming  the  law  to  be  that  no  convictions  could  take 
place  under  these  sections,  magistrates  in  the  colony 
did  convict,  and  immigrants  suffered  the  penalty 
under  them.*  I  regret  to  find  in  the  Commissioners' 
Report  that  this  occurrence,  which,  short  of  actual  cor- 
ruption, is  one  of  the  most  startling  proofs  that  could 
be  afforded  of  magisterial  demoralisation,  is  treated 
with  undue  lenity.  Their  own  words  are :  "  Upon 
this  point,  it  must  be  observed,  that  the  decision 
in  question  took  the  colony  by  surprise,  and  became 
the  subject  of  much  controversy.  For  some  time 
it  was  evidently  hoped  by  the  planters,  and  very 
likely  it  was  expected  by  the  magistrates,  that  the 
ruling  of  the  Chief  Justice  would  be  reversed,  if  a 
case  could  be  brought  before  the  full  court.  Unques- 
tionable as  was  the  magistrates'  duty,  in  the  meantime,  to 
co7iform  to  the  law  laid  down  i7i  the  Superior  Court, 
the  fact  that  they  were  somewhat  slow  in  accepting 
a  decision  of  such  a  character,  under  such  circum- 
stances, is  not  sufficie7it  ground  for  imputing  to  tin  in 

*  Report,  &c.,  H  28,  29. 


21 8  THE  COOLIE. 

farfiality  in  the  admi'mstration  of  justice  !  "  If  the 
"  character "  and  "  circumstances  "  of  a  decision  of 
a  superior  court  are  to  be  considered  in  a  lower 
review  by  magistrates,  and  to  be  accepted  as  pallia- 
tions for  what  would  admittedly  be  otherwise  a 
gross  malpractice,  and  an  evidence  of  partisan  feel- 
ing discreditable  to  all  concerned,  it  seems  to  me 
the  foundations  of  a  pure  legal  administration  will  be 
sapped.  The  position  is  as  untenable  as  its  adoption 
by  the  Commissioners  is  a  perplexity.  I  cannot  see 
that  any  absurdity  in  the  decision,  admitting  it  to 
exist,  or  the  fact  that  the  immigrants  could,  in  most 
of  the  cases,  be  as  easily  convicted  under  section  1 16, 
in  the  least  excuses  this  sort  of  magisterial  strike 
against  a  higher  tribunal. 

The  decision,  affecting  as  it  did  very  seriously  the 
labour  of  the  colony,  was  remedied  by  legislation.  In 
order  to  remove  the  doubt  and  uncertainty  as  to  the 
minijuum  of  work  required  from  the  immigrant,  it  was 
defined,  by  Ordinance  g  of  1868,  section  7,  to  be  one 
shilling's  worth  of  work  per  day — the  former  estimate 
of  a  day's  work  being  a  guilder,  or  i^.  \d. — and  the 
weekly  minimum  of  tasks  was  fixed  at  five  shillings' 
worth  per  week. 

The  effect  of  these  enactments  together,  therefore, 
was,  first,  that  the  standard  of  wages  was  to  be  the 
same  amount  of  wages  as  that  paid  to  Creole  and  other 
unindentured  labourers  working  on  the  same  planta- 
tion— or,  in  case  there  should  be  no  such  labourers,  or 
they  should  not  be  paid  according  to  the  average  rates 
of  wages  for  unindentured  labourers  employed  under 
similar  circumstances  on  the  neighbouring  planta- 
tions, then  at  the  same  or  the  fair  average  rate  of 
wages,  such  as  were  paid  to  such  last-mentioned 
labourers  on  the  neighbouring  plantations. 

The  reader  must  bear  in  mind  both  the  character 
of  the  country,  as  previously  described — stretching  for 


IMMIGRA TION  LA  WS.  2 1 9 

hundreds  of  miles,  with  a  scattered  population,  with 
some  estates  in  lonely  and  distant  localities — and 
the  peculiarity  of  the  relation,  an  obligatory  service 
by  a  vast  number  of  labourers,  at  a  rate  of  pay  com- 
pulsory on  the  employer.  Into  this  peculiar  relation 
the  present  system  is  obviously  intended  to  force 
free-trade  by  putting  all  labour,  indentured  and  free, 
into  equal  competition.  But  let  us  suppose  a  case  in 
which — as  is  quite  possible  on  some  estates — no 
Creole  labourer  is  ernployed  either  on,  or  in  the 
neighbourhood  of,  the  estate  at  such  work  as  "  weed- 
ing." A  gang  of  Coolies  is  told  off  to  weed  a  field, 
the  overseer  offering  six  "  bitts,"  i.e.,  six  fourpennies, 
for  twelve  beds.  The  immigrants  demur.  What  is 
to  be  done  ?  The  standard  does  not  exist :  the  Coolie 
must  accept  or  strike.  The  latter  course  holds  out  to 
him  the  prospect  of  a  summons  before  the  magistrate, 
and  fine  or  imprisonment ;  the  former  is  accepting 
terms  dictated  by  the  person  most  interested.  A 
hard  problem  is  this  every  way. 

The  second  effect  was  to  make  the  amount  of 
wages  earned  the  measure  of  the  task  which  it  was 
incumbent  on  the  Coolie  to  execute  before  he  could 
clear  himself  of  the  minimtmi  of  his  week's  work. 

Let  us  analyse  for  a  moment  the  Coolie's  position 
under  this  arrangement.  He  is  bound  to  do  five 
shillings'  worth  of  work  a  week.  The  question  of 
what  is  five  shillings'  worth  is  an  open  one,  de- 
pendent on  circumstances — those  circumstances  of  a 
fickle  and  uncertain  charactei^     They  are  either  : — 

1.  That  some  free  labourers  are  labouring  at  the 
same  sort  of  work  on  the  same  plantation  ;  or,  in  de- 
fault of  that, 

2.  That  free  labourers  are  labouring  at  the  same 
work  in  adjacent  plantations. 

Then,  in  case  Number  i,  he  is  to  be  paid  at  the  same 
rate  as  those  labourers ;  in  case  Number  2,  he  is  to  be 


220  THE  COOLIE. 

paid  at  the  average  rate  of  the  adjoining  plantations. 
But  what  if  the  employer  takes  care  to  put  no  free 
labourers  on  the  work  ordinarily  done  by  Coolies  r 
Test  Number  i  does  not  apply.  Or  what  if  neigh- 
bouring planters  are  equally  shrewd  ?  Ditto.  Or 
what  if  there  are  no  adjacent  plantations?  We  reach 
uncertainty  again.  Clearly  the  Commissioners  are 
right  when  they  say  that  this  must  be  taken  as  "  a 
rough  approximation  to  fairness,  rather  than  as  an 
infallible  test  of  what  is  due." 

Moreover,  the  standard  is  in  one  sense  an  improper 
one.  The  free  labourer  must  maintain  himself,  and 
find  his  own  doctor,  and  hospital,  and  house.  It  is 
illusory  to  expect  a  planter  to  pay  a  Coolie,  for  whom 
he  is  put  to  the  expenses  of  indenture,  houses,  and 
hospitals,  as  much  as  he  pays  a  better  working  free 
labourer.  I  should  expect  to  find  the  employer  in 
practice  trying  to  shirk  this  standard,  and  not  to  be 
solaced  by  the  alleged  counter-consolation  that  the 
supply  of  labour  is  "  constant  and  continuous."  I 
cannot  but  believe  that  the  hundreds  of  quick-witted 
Coolies  who  came  to  me,  and  complained  that  their 
wages  were  below  those  of  the  blacks,  and  that  they 
had  no  alternative  but  to  accept  them,  had  some  basis 
for  their  dissatisfaction.  Nearly  all  their  disputes 
with  managers  and  all  their  riots  seem  to  turn  on  this 
vexed  point  of  wages.  The  Commissioners,  though 
evidently  not  in  love  with  the  system,  content  them- 
selves with  saying  that  it  is  "  not  easy  to  suggest  any 
amendment  for  the  better."  But  it  is  perfectly  clear 
that  unless  some  amendment  is  suggested  by  some 
one  and  brought  into  practical  operation,  the  esta- 
blishment of  enduring  content  among  the  immigrants 
is  a  doubtful  question. 

The  objections  to  a  fixed  tariff  are  undoubtedly 
strong.  They  are — its  inflexibility  in  adapting  it  to 
individual  cases^  and  the  difficulty,  when  once  it  is 


IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS.  221 

established,  to  get  the  rate  of  wages  raised  or  de- 
pressed in  accordance  with  circumstances.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  schedule  has  this  decided  advantage, 
that  disputes  as  to  rates  of  wages  can  be  immediately 
settled  by  a  reference  to  it.  Though  in  peculiar  cases 
it  may  lead  now  and  then  to  hardship,  yet  in  the 
main,  while  the  general  body  of  labourers  would  profit 
by  it,  it  would  contribute  to  diminish  the  chances  of 
disputes.  It  would  give  a  fair  average  justice.  My 
opinion  is  in  favour  of  this  method ;  but  I  give  it 
with  great  diffidence.  It  is,  perhaps,  possible  that  a 
board  of  arbitrators  could  be  constituted  in  the  colony 
in  which  the  Coolies  would  have  confidence.  That 
would  most  infallibly,  xvere  the  latter  elonent  assured 
in  it.,  make  the  system  perfect.  But  who  is  sufficient 
for  these  things  ? 

The  second  effect  of  the  legislation  was,  we  have 
said,  to  make  the  measure  of  a  task  one  shilling's 
worth  of  work.  "  This  was  suggested,  no  doubt,  by 
the  long-established  custom  under  which  the  day  s 
task  which  could  be  enforced  by  law  and  a  guilder's 
worth  of  work  had  been,  since  the  times  of  the  appren- 
ticeship, considered  as  equivalent ;  but  since  it  was 
not  desired  to  press  hardly  on  the  Coolies,  and  since 
it  might  be  said  that  their  average  was  at  least  one 
quarter  less  per  week  of  work  or  wages  than  that 
of  the  black  labourers  in  former  times,  it  was  decided 
by  Sir  Francis  Hincks,  in  consultation  with  ^Mr.  Gal- 
lagher, then  Acting  Immigration  Agent-General,"  to 
fix  the  Coolie  task  on  this  principle. 

The  manager,  therefore,  could  summon  a  Coolie  for, 
"without  reasonable  cause,"  neglecting  or  refusing 
to  begin  the  work  required  of  him,  or  for  leaving 
work  begun  unfinished,  or  for  absence  from  work,  or  for 
not  performing  five  tasks  of  one  shilling  in  value  in 
the  week.  This  produces  a  curious  situation.  Sup- 
posing the  employer  requires  the  Coolie  to  begin  work 


22  2  THE  COOLIE. 

on  Monday  moming- :  the  latter  has  six  days  in  which 
to  do  his  week's  work.  That  work  is  five  tasks.  Might 
he  not  do  all  these  tasks  in  three  days  r  Might  he  not 
elect  to  begin  liis  five  days'  work  on  Tuesday  r  Are  the 
five  tasks  the  limit  of  the  employer's  requirements  r — 
In  practice  the  employers  seem  not  to  have  so  recog- 
nised it.  They  summoned  men  who  did  not  commence 
work  on  Monday ;  they  summoned  men  who  had 
done  five  shillings'  worth  in  five  or  less  than  five  days. 
*'  We  believe,"  says  the  Report,  "the  right  of  standing 
idle  for  the  rest  of  the  week  has  not  been,  in  fact, 
recognised  by  managers  generally.  We  have  no 
doubt  that  men  are  occasionally  convicted  of  neglect 
or  refusal  to  work,  or  of  absence,  who  have,  if  the  fact 
were  ascertained,  already  done  five  shillings'  worth  of 
work  during  the  week.  If,  however,  the  fact  came  out 
in  evidence,  a  convictimi  could  hardly  be  obtained."  The 
critical  reader  will  ask  how,  if  a  magistrate  is  alive  to 
his  duty,  it  is  possible  that  the  fact  should  not  come 
out  in  evidence,  unless  the  plaintiff's  witnesses  perjure 
themselves.  The  Commissioners  suggest  that  the 
enactment  in  this  respect  needs  amendment. 

The  laxA-ful  excuses  for  the  above  offences  may  here 
be  briefly  alluded  to.  One  is  that  peculiar  to  a  female, 
namely,  that  she  is  pregnant.  Mr.  Des  Voeux  has, 
in  his  letter,  laid  some  stress  on  the  employment  of 
pregnant  women,  and  I  saw  a  woman  who  stated  she 
had  been  committed  to  prison  with  hard  labour  by  a 
magistrate,  the  result  of  which  had  been  rather  more 
literally  to  that  effect  than  he  intended  it.  But  the 
Commissioners,  I  am  glad  to  say,  report  this  charge 
to  have  been  very  fully  refuted,  and,  in  fact,  speak  in 
terms  of  approbation  of  the  general  treatment  of 
women  in  that  condition  on  the  estates.*  This  con- 
firms my  ow^n  impression. 

Another  just  exception  would  be  that  of  conva- 

•  Report,  &c.,  H  300,  574,  575. 


IMMIGRA  TION  LA  ^S.  2  2  3 

lescents  discharged  from  hospital,  but  not  quite  fit 
for  work.  These  people  giv^e  rise  to  very  nice  ques- 
tions. In  cases  where  the  defendant  is  obviously 
ill,  the  magistrates  would  send  him  back  to  the 
hospital.  Under  the  Act  4  of  1864  it  was  made  incum- 
bent on  the  magistrate  to  make  inquiry  into  the 
fitness  to  work  of  persons  brought  before  him  under 
sections  115,  116.  Under  the  amending  Ordinance  9 
of  1868,  the  onus  of  raising  the  question  was  at- 
tempted to  be  thrown  on  the  immigrant.  This  was 
a  blunder.  The  Commissioners  describe  the  difficulty, 
and  animadvert  upon  it  thus  : — 

"  It  is  difficult  actually  to  draw  the  line  between 
a  convalescent  dismissed  from  hospital  as  cured,  but 
in  an  unfit  state  for  work,  and  one  for  whom,  al- 
though not  quite  cured,  some  slight  compulsion  to 
exert  himself  is  in  the  highest  degree  beneficial. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  usual  practice  of  sending  a 
convalescent  into  the  buildings  to  turn  megass,  or 
do  some  other  slight  work,  within  reach  of  shelter 
from  the  weather,  is  both  humane  and  salutary. 
On  the  other,  the  plan  followed  by  Mr.  Bascom  at 
Spring  Garden,  of  employing  a  regular  convalescent 
gang,  under  a  black  driver,  is  quite  as  clearly  an 
excessive  utilising  of  available  labour.  The  number 
of  convalescents,  properly  so  called,  is  smaller  than 
might  be  supposed,  because  the  hospital,  partaking 
rather  of  the  nature  of  an  infirmary,  generally  retains 
its  inmates  longer  than  a  regular  hospital  would 
do,  and  although,  in  this  respect,  we  have  found 
instances  in  case-books  which  seem  to  show  that 
vigilance  is  needed  in  the  matter,  we  do  not  believe 
that  the  magistrates  generally  hold  themselves  bound 
to  sentence  a  prisoner  on  the  mere  production  of  the 
case-book,  containing  the  doctor's  testimony  to  the 
discharge  as  cured  of  a  man  who  is  obviously  still 
weak  and  infirm." 


2  24  THE  COOLIE. 

2.  The  laws  also  contain  provisions  against  the 
desertion  of  immigrants.  Originally  this  desertion 
was  defined  to  be  *'  absence  without  leave  at  the  daily- 
calling  over  of  the  muster-roll " — a  ceremony  then 
enjoined  upon  the  manager,  subject  to  a  penalty  not 
exceeding  $24 — "  and  absence  from  work  for  the  space 
of  seven  days."  The  penalty  on  the  immigrant  was  not 
to  exceed  $24,  or  one  month's  imprisonment.  This  pro- 
\asion  was  found  impracticable  in  the  working,  as  the 
immigrants  would  not  attend,  many  of  them  preferring 
to  begin  work  before  six  o'clock,  the  hour  designated 
for  roll-call  by  the  ordinance.  By  Ordinance  9  of  1 868, 
sec.  12,  the  option  was  given  to  the  managers,  after 
notice,  to  substitute  another  plan,  described  in  a 
former  page.*  The  notes  in  the  overseer's  books, 
transcribed  into  the  pay-list,  constituted  '•'■  prima 
facie  evidence  of  the  matters  required  to  be  entered 
therein." 

If  a  Coolie  had  absented  himself  from  the  planta- 
tion, the  manager  was  bound  to  give  notice  of  his 
absence  within  forty-eight  hours  to  the  police,  in 
default  of  which  a  penalty  of  not  more  than  $24  was 
to  be  imposed.  This  seems  to  have  gone  the  way  of 
all  planters'  penalties.  Its  primary  object  was  to 
prevent  collusive  desertion  of  weak  or  sickly  labourers 
who  might,  for  instance,  when  they  were  felt  to 
be  a  burthen  on  the  estate,  have  been  given  §5  to 
run  away,  and  whose  identification  would  afterwards 
become  a  very  difficult  matter.  We  naturally  step 
from  the  deserters  to 

3.  The  provisions  for  securing  to  the  immigrants 
their  liberty  in  cases  where  they  had  served  their  inden- 
ture, or  in  the  cases  where,  during  the  week,  they  had 
completed  their  tasks.  The  107th  section  of  Ordi- 
nance 4  of  1864  enacted  that — "Every  employer  of 
any  immigrants  under  indenture,  or  the  servant  of  such 

♦  Ante,  p.  76. 


IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS.  2  2  5 

employer,  or  any  police  oflficer  or  rural  constable,  may 
apprehend  without  a  warrant  any  such  immigrant 
who  may  be  found  on  any  day  and  at  any  hour  he 
may  be  bound  to  labour  at  a  distance  greater  than 
two  miles  from  the  plantation  on  which  such  immi- 
grant is  under  such  contract  to  perform  service,  unless 
such  immigrant  has  in  his  possession  a  pass  signed  by 
such  employer,  or  by  some  person  authorised  by  him 
to  sign  the  same,  certifying  that  such  immigrant  has 
been  permitted  so  to  absent  himself."  One  exception 
to  this  strict  law  existed  in  the  right  of  the  Coolie  to 
absent  himself  on  reasonable  grounds  to  complain  to 
the  Immigration  Agent-General. 

The  confusion  necessarily  arising  out  of  these  enact- 
ments, and  the  others  prescribing  his' work  or  the  reme- 
dies of  the  employer,  is  not  in  favour  of  the  Coolie.  ■  It 
has  already  been  shown  that  for  two  years  he  was  de- 
prived, through  magisterial  inadvertence  and  the  mis- 
understanding of  the  police,  of  the  latter  protection  ; 
and,  in  addition  to  that,  it  was  a  very  nice  question  what 
the  "  hour  he  may  be  bound  to  labour  "  implied.  Sup- 
posing he  had  completed  live  tasks,  and  was  taking  a 
holiday,  could  he  be  arrested  in  this  summary  manner? 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  practice  he  was  so  arrested, 
and  that  the  enactments  as  they  stand  are  so  incon- 
gruous and  so  indefinite  that  it  is  almost  if  not  wholly 
impossible  for  a  magistrate  to  decide  the  question. 
The  Commissioners  have  recommended  that  the  live- 
shilling  task  should  be  struck  from  the  statute-book, 
and  that  the  charge  of  "  neglecting  or  refusing  to 
work  "  and  of  "  absence  from  work  "  should  be  left  to 
be  the  means  of  enforcing  labour  from  the  Coolie. 
Brought  up  now  under  one,  now  under  the  other  charge 
forsimilar  offences,  the  Coolie  might  well  be  confounded 
about  a  justice  itself  so  confused  and  indeterminate. 
"The  provision  reciuiring  the  performance  ot  five 
tasks  is  found  to  infringe  one  of  the  best  principles  of 

Q 


2  26  THE  COOLIE. 

legislation,  that  no  penal  law  should  exist  which  is 
only  occasionally  put  in  force."  But  there  is  a 
glaring  injustice,  as  the  law  at  present  stands,  in 
arresting  a  Coolie  at  any  distance  from  his  plantation 
who  had  done  his  week's  five  tasks.  The  only  evi- 
dence of  that  fact  which  would  now  technically 
excuse  him  from  arrest  would  be  a  pass  signed  by 
his  employer.  But  the  granting  of  this  pass  is  not 
enjoined  on  the  employer,  any  more  than  the  right 
to  enforce  its  delivery  to  him  is  conferred  on  the 
immigrant.  Hence  the  freedom  of  the  indentured 
labourer  at  times  when  he  is  not  bound  to  work  is 
not  insured. 

The  immigrant  who  has  completed  his  indenture  and 
is  free  in  law  is  still,  owing  to  the  peculiar  necessities 
of  the  system,  not  quite  so  in  fact.  He  must  carry 
about  with  him  a  "  certificate  of  industrial  service," 
countersigned  by  the  Immigration  Agent ;  in  default 
of  \\4iich  he  is  liable  to  be  arrested,  and  to  be  detained 
until  he  is  identified.  Should  he  lose  this  valuable 
document— -the  patent  of  his  freedom — he  must  pay 
5  for  a  duplicate. 

I  do  not  know  that  the  disability  on  freed-men  can, 
consistently  with  maintaining  discipline  throughout 
the  colony,  be  removed.  But  to  remedy  the  fgrmer, 
the  laws  defining  the  offences  of  absence  and  desertion 
require  to  be  more  accurately  drawn.  The  right  to 
demand  a  pass  on  certain  contingencies  should  be 
peremptorily  laid  down ;  the  right  to  grant  one  sum- 
marily should  be  given  to  stipendiary  magistrates  who 
now  sometimes  assume  it ;  and  the  power  of  arrest 
should  be  guarded  by  very  strict  and  careful  pro- 
visos. Indeed,  it  should  be  the  aim  of  legislation  to 
confer  upon  the  Coolie,  and  to  protect  at  all  events, 
the  7naxi)m(m  of  liberty  consistent  with  an  honest 
performance  of  his  contract.  The  policy  of  legislation 
has  hitherto  been  rather  to  remind  him  of  the  force  of 


IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS.  2  2  7 

his  bonds  than  to  render  them  so  light  as  that  he 
may  almost  be  unconscious  of  them. 

It  was  said  that  some  managers  stated  it  as  a 
rule  that  an  immigrant  must  either  be  at  work,  in 
hospital,  or  in  gaol. 

"  More  than  one  manager  has  expressed  his  opinion 
that  the  rule  does,  in  fact,  fairly  represent  the  obliga- 
tion it  is  expedient  to  enforce  upon  an  immigrant. 
This  is  Mr.  Russell's  opinion,  and  a  similar  one  was 
expressed  by  Mr.  Daly,  of  Vergenoegen,  and  J\lr. 
Bascom,  of  Cove  and  John  : — 

"  There  is  perhaps  some  ground  of  apprehension 
that  a  manager  who  propounds  the  general  rule  in 
harsh-sounding  and  injudiciously-sweeping  language, 
will  be  rather  less  likely  to  be  indulgent  in  the 
concession  of  leave  to  immigrants  in  giving  them 
holidays,  in  letting  them  off  when  charged,  and  liable 
to  be  sent  to  gaol,  and  in  tolerating  some  laxity  of 
obedience  to  the  rule  of  labour,  where  there  is  grass 
to  cut  for  a  cow,  or  some  other  private  pursuit  not 
carried  to  excess. 

"  Mr.  Des  Voeux  asserts  broadly  that  the  estates  are 
governed,  with  a  very  few  notable  exceptions,  not  by 
kindness  and  good  treatment,  but  through  the  fear  of 
the  severity  of  the  law.  We  are  convinced  that  there 
isy  in  fact,  more  kindness  and  good  treatment  than  he  is 
disposed  to  allow,  but  that  the  system  is  one  under  which 
the  immigra?its  are  too  much  governed  through  fear  oj 
the  severity  of  the  law,  we  shall  shortly  have  occasion  to 
show." 

4.  Lastly. — Under  this  head  there  are  the  pro- 
visions against  the  destruction  of  the  employer's  pro- 
perty. The  Coolie  who  loses  or  damages  the  property 
of  his  employer  by  negligence,  or  carelessness,  or 
other  improper  conduct,  or  by  **  a  careless  and  im- 
proper use  of  fire,"  or  who  "  wantonly  and  cruelly  ill- 
treats   animals    belonging    to   his   employer,   or,   by 


228  THE  COOTJE. 

negligence  or  carelessness^  shall  suffer  or  cause  the 
same  to  be  wantonly  beaten,  &c.  (rj" — is  liable  to  a 
penalty  not  exceeding"  $24,  or  one  month's  imprison- 
ment ;  and,  if  twice  convicted,  to  a  fine  not  exceeding 
848,  or  two  months'  imprisonment.* 

Some  of  these  provisions  seem  to  overlap  the 
criminal  law,  since  an  improper  use  of  fire  would 
seem  to  be  very  characteristic  of  arson,  while  the 
'*  negligence "  of  "  suffering "  an  animal  to  be 
"  wantonly  beaten "  is  an  ingenuity  in  legislative 
definition  well  worthy  another  special  ordinance  to 
explain  it.  The  burning  of  "  logics "  stocked  with 
the  dry  megass  is  one  of  the  most  facile  and  malicious 
methods  of  revenge,  and  one  frequently  employed  by 
a  people  of  so  few  moral  notions  as  the  immigrants. 
It  is  one,  moreover,  to  be  punished  with  the  utmost 
rigour,  and  no  penalty  short  of  death  or  torture 
would  be  too  great  for  a  destruction  which  hampers 
the  productive  power  of  the  estate,  and  often  imperils 
the  whole  of  its  machinery.  But  lighter  negligences 
or  carelessnesses  need  more  accurate  definition, 
since  the  spoiling  of  a  box  of  sugar  by  an  accident 
may  expose  a  hand  to  penalties  exceeding  such 
claims  as  it  needs  very  gross  carelessness  on  the  part 
of  a  domestic  servant  in  England  to  enable  a  master 
to  enforce. 

♦  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  sec.  19, 


229 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  coolie's   remedies   AGAINST   HIS   EMPLOYER. 

THE  employer  is  bound  to  provide  the  immigrant 
with  suitable  and  sufficient  dwelling-house  and 
hospital  accommodation,  and  to  secure  to  him,  when 
sick,  suitable  and  sufficient  medical  attendance,  medi- 
cines, maintenance,  and  the  services  of  a  competent 
nurse ';  to  pay  him  weekly,  on  a  fixed  day  and  with- 
out deduction,  wages  at  the  same  rate  as  the  wages 
paid  to  the  Creole  and  other  indentured  labourers 
on  the  same  or  adjacent  plantations,  &c. 

Summary  remedies  against  the  employers  for  fail- 
ing in  these  particulars  are,  as  the  Commissioners 
say,  "  conspicuous  by  their  absence."  There  is  an 
enactment  in  these  terms  :  "  If  any  employer  shall 
in  any  way  ill-use  any  immigrants,  on  being  con- 
victed thereof  he  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  an  offence, 
and  shall  pay  a  fine  not  exceeding  the  sum  of  forty- 
eight  dollars,  or  be  imprisoned,  with  or  without  hard 
labour,  for  any  time  not  exceeding  two  months,  or 
pay  such  fine  and  be  so  imprisoned."  *'  It  is  a  very 
strange  assertion,"  said  Mr.  Crosby,  "  but  that  is  the 
only  protective  section  in  the  whole  of  this  ordi- 
nance." The  employer's  penalty  for  ill-using  his 
labourer  is,  as  regards  the  fine,  only  twice  that  im- 
posed on  the  Coolie  for  ill-using  his  master's  pro- 
perty, while  the  imprisonment  is  equal.     Moreover, 


2  50  THE  COOLjE. 

the  vagueness  of  the  term  "ill-usage"  would  probably 
prove  too  hard  a  problem  for  magisterial  solution. 

With  regard  to  hospital  treatment  and  proper 
dwellings,  the  Coolie  himself  can,  it  appears,  set  in 
motion  legal  action  against  his  master  for  providing 
improper  medicines,  diet,  &c.*  But  in  practice  that 
is  left  entirely  to  the  Executive,  and  their  manage- 
ment of  it  will  be  presently  considered.  Meanwhile 
I  may  point  out  that  the  Trinidad  Ordinance  also 
gives  the  Coolie  the  right  to  initiate  a  proceeding 
upon  the  failure  of  the  employer  to  send  him  to 
hospital,  if  he  requires  medical  treatment  —  the 
penalty,  on  conviction,  not  exceeding  ten  pounds.'f  It 
is  clear  that  a  stronger  hand  has  been  at  work  in 
Trinidad  than  in  British  Guiana. 

For  any  failure  to  pay  him  his  wages  the  immi- 
grant's remedy  is  a  qualified  one.J  Under  the  Petty 
Debts  Ordinance  he  may,  in  the  case  of  work  actu- 
ally done  and  wages  actually  earned,  enforce  his 
claim.  But  under  the  section,  whereby  reduced  tasks 
are  to  be  assigned  to  those  who  are  incompetent  to 
perform  full  work,  he  has  no  remedy  for  the  em- 
ployer's default  to  provide  it.  "  Turning  to  the  parts 
of  the  act  intended  to  enforce  its  substantive  pro- 
visions, we  find  provision  for  enforcing  the  payment 
of  wages  conspicuous  by  its  absence.  It  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  intended  to  give  to  the  inden- 
tured immigrants  by  this  act  the  power  of  suing  for 
wages  under  the  magistrate's  summary  jurisdiction." 

Perhaps,  among  the  forty  unlucky  sections,  which 
Mr.  Crosby  tells  us  were  "  struck  out  at  one  swoop  " 
by  the  Court  of  Policy,  these  remedies  were  with- 
drawn from  the  immigrant.  The  absence  of  such 
provisions  is  the  more  significant  because,  in  1853-54, 

*  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  sees.  151  and  154. 
t  Trinidad  Ordinance  13  of  1870,  sec.  37. 


REMEDIES  A  GAINST  EM  PL  OVERS.         1 3 1 

the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  Sir  George 
Grey,  distinctly  refused  to  sanction  Ordinance  7  of 
1854,  because  "the  most  important  clauses  of  the 
ordinances  of  previous  years,  which  imposed  penalties 
on  the  employer  for  non-performance  of  his  duties, 
were  silently  expunged."*  The  provision  was  rein- 
stated in  that  ordinance,  to  be  again  silently  ex- 
punged in  Ordinance  4  of  1864,  without  any  remark, 
apparently,  from  the  then  Colonial  Secretary.  "  It 
seems,"  says  the  Report,  "  somewhat  strange  that 
while  so  much  jealousy  was  exhibited  by  the  Home 
Government  at  the  omission  of  any  such  provision 
from  successive  acts,  this  particular  one — certainly 
not  the  least  important — should  have  been  tacitly 
allowed  to  disappear  in  1853  from  the  general  Labour 
Code,  and  in  1864  from  that  relating  to  immigration." 

In  proceeding  under  the  Petty  Debt  Ordinance  the 
Coolie  is  restricted,  we  have  said,  to  recovering  wages 
actually  due  ;  but  that  would  be  on  an  admission  by 
the  Coolie  of  the  terms  of  the  labour  or  rate  of  wages. 
He  cannot  raise  the  question  of  the  justice  of  the  rate 
in  this  proceeding.  Hence  it  is  only  in  rare  cases 
that  he  can  avail  himself  of  this  limited  remedy.  One 
of  the  magistrates  is  of  opinion  that  properly  even 
this  is  not  open  to  him  If 

To  add  to  the  legal  hotch-potch,  by  a  technical 
arrangement  of  late  legislation  the  free  immigrant, 
who  formerly  had  remedies  under  the  Employers  and 
Servants  Ordinance  of  1853,  has  been  deprived  of 
them,  and  has  no  higher  advantages  than  his  inden- 
tured fellow-countrymen. 

For  claims  ranging  from  $24  to  $240  resort  may  be 
had  to  the  Inferior  Court  of  Civil  Justice  established 

*  Papers  relating  to  Immif^ralion  to  tlit-  West  Inciian  Colonics,  pre- 
sented to  Parliament  August,  18O7,  pp.  55,  i(>').  (Jiiolcd  l)y  ilie  Com- 
missioners, H  254. 

f  Air.  Huginson's  evidence,  Q.  7755,  Report,  &c.,  11  256. 


2  32  THE  COOLIE. 

in  1856.*  This  court,  however,  is  for  the  rich,  and 
not  for  the  poor.  The  legislators  of  British  Guiana 
have  legislated  wholesomely  against  litigation.  The 
expenses  of  "  service  of  citations,  summonses,  taking 
up  sentence,  ^c,"  are  heavy.  As  only  ten  per  cent, 
on  the  amount  of  sentence  can  be  recovered  as 
taxed  costs  for  counsel's  fee,  it  is  practically  im- 
possible to  retain  counsel.  The  Commissioners  quote 
a  return  of  the  proportion  of  Coolie  cases  in  this 
court. 


1867. 

1868. 

1869. 

Totals     .     . 

•      423 

424 

463  of  which 

Immigrants 

.        28 

45 

45 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  machinery  by  which 
alone  the  Coolie  can  enforce  his  claims  upon  an  em- 
ployer, we  find  that  he  is  blessed  with  very  few 
facilities  for  exercising  his  litigious  faculty.  He  has, 
under  any  circumstances,  but  a  slight  chance  of  be- 
coming acquainted  with  a  law  not  translated  into  his 
own  language,  and  in  its  original  sufficiently  puzzling 
to  an  Englishman.  The  expense  of  securing  legal 
assistance  is  inordinate.  Whether  the  general  dear- 
ness  of  the  colony  or  the  superlative  quality  of  the 
law  provided,  be  the  reason  or  no,  the  fees  absorbed 
by  the  barrister-attorneys  of  Georgetown  would  make 
a  decent  Queen's-Counsel's  mouth  water  Forty  dol- 
lars and  expenses  is  a  fee  for  attending  a  court  seven 
miles  out  of  town,  and  very  frequently  Coolies  men- 
tioned to  me  that  they  had  given  "  Massa  So-and-so 
$20,  $30,  or  $50."  The  Bar  is  not  very  extensive 
There  are  an  Attorney  and  Solicitor-General,  and 
two  other  white  juniors  waiting  for  those  lucrative 
posts.  A  lively  Irish  barrister,  who  gaily  wavered 
between  the  courts  and  the  newspapers  in  alternate 
legal  and  literary  spasms,  has  I  believe  left  the 
colony,  and   two  or   three   black  or   coloured   prac- 

*  Report,  &c.,  H  218. 


REMEDIES  A  GA  INST  EM  PL  OVERS.         2  3  3 

titioners  complete  the  legal  tale.  There  are  also 
attorneys.  But  I  suppose  no  practitioner  in  the 
colony  would  look  at  $5,  which  would  be  an  ample 
fee  for  a  Coolie  to  pay  in  most  of  his  cases,  and  may- 
hap for  the  assistance  to  be  obtained  by  it. 

The  reader  will  observe  it  is  a  favourable  sign  that 
Coolies  are  to  be  found  with  $30,  ^40,  or  $50  to  expend 
in  litigation.  But,  on  the  ether  hand,  few  can  accom- 
plish this ;  and  even  the  occasions  on  which  they 
take  up  a  general  subscription  to  help  each  other 
must  be  rare.  It  might  be  well  to  encourage  a  few 
Hindu  barristers  to  settle  down  in  British  Guiana. 
They  might  be  guaranteed  a  certain  amount  by  the 
Indian  Government ;  or  might  form  part  of  that 
body  of  immigrants'  counsel  which  I  propose  should 
be  maintained  in  the  colony.  Their  acquaintance 
with  the  language  and  ways  of  their  people  would 
enable  them  to  render  great  assistance,  not  only  in 
vindicating  their  rights,  but  also,  one  would  hope,  in 
suppressing  their  discontent.  The  cases  of  in- 
justice arising  out  of  the  inefiicient  way  in  which 
a  Coolie  necessarily  puts  his  own  case*  before  a 
magistrate  would,  were  he  provided  with  legal  assist- 
ance, be  rendered  impossible. 

When  the  Coolie  appears  in  court,  his  difficulties 
are  aggravated  should  he,  as  nearly  all  the  new  and 
many  of  the  old  Coolies  are,  be  unacquainted  with 
English. — En  parenthese,  here  I  may  mention  that  if 
he  knows  English  he  declines  to  speak  it  at  his 
risk :  witness  this  incident,  related  of  himself  by  Mr. 
Ware : — 

Q.  On  the  27th  of  August  do  you  remember  locking 
up  a  witness  for  four  hours  on  a  Saturday  because  he 
refused  to  speak  iMiglish  r — Yes.  He  was  locked  up 
for  about  an  hour.  There  was  evidence  before  me 
that  the  man  could  speak  English  well,  and  1  looked 
«  See  the  incident  related  in  Chapter  IX.  of  a  vain  appeal  to  an  ordinance. 


2  3+  THE  COOLIE. 

upon  his  refusal  as  a  contempt  of  court  [!)y  but  he  was 
not  fined. 

Q.  Did  he  speak  English  when  he  came  out  ? 
— ^iVhen  he  came  out,  I  told  him  he  had  better  con- 
sider whether  he  would  speak  English  at  the  next 
court,  and  he  then  uttered  several  words.  The  inter- 
preter who  was  present  said  the  man  spoke  English 
fluently.     He  was  an  old  Coolie. 

To  return  to  the  Coolies.  Those  who  are  not 
stubbornly  disinclined  to  use  English,  but  are  inca- 
pable, must  plead  and  conduct  their  case  through 
the  interpreters  of  the  court.  These  persons  them- 
selves speak  the  most  indifferent  English,  and  are 
paid  only  $24  a  month.  The  Coolies  told  us  they 
were  obliged  to  pay  these  men  to  get  them  to  interpret 
fairly ;  and  their  low  position  and  native  cupidity  lay 
them  open  to  convenient  ctoziccurs  from  drivers  or 
overseers  who  want  to  show  something  to  the 
managers  for  the  day's  justice.  Mr.  Aloes,  one  of  the 
acting  stipendiary  magistrates,  possessed  of  some 
knowledge  of  Hindustani,  instanced  a  case  within  his 
own  experience  where  an  interpreter  pleaded  "  guilty  " 
for  a  man  who  had  pleaded  "  not  guilty." 

Very  properly  do  the  Commissioners  comment  on 
the  absolute  necessity  of  remedying  this  evil,  in 
order  to  make  the  legal  administration  as  pure  as 
possible.  "It  is  easy  to  see  how  a  few  decisions, 
either  known  or  suspected  to  have  been  brought 
about  by  false  interpreting  of  the  evidence,  would  go 
to  impair  confidence  in  the  administration  of  justice. 
Want  of  acquaintance  with  the  laws  and  forms  of 
law,  inexperience  of  European  habits,  and  a  general 
defect  of  moral  courage,  are  disadvantages  for  which 
nothing  can  compensate  the  immigrant  save  care 
and  patience  [they  might  have  added,  and  immacu- 
late independence]  in  the  presiding  magistrate.  They 
are  not  greater,  however,  in  their  case  than  in  that  of 


REMEDIES  AGAINST  EMPLOYERS.  235 

many  others,  between  whom  and  Europeans  justice 
has  been  done  by  European  judges." 

In  his  defences  the  Coolie  is  yet  more  lieavily 
ironed.  The  notorious  profligacy  of  deceit  common 
to  his  people,  and  the  necessarily  strong  and  but 
little  riddled  evidence  of  the  estate's  staff,  place  him 
in  a  singularly  helpless  situation.  The  Commissioners 
say  :  "  Great  pains  appear  to  us  to  be  taken  by  the 
magistrates  to  explain  and  afford  to  him  the  facilities 
to  which  he  is  entitled  by  law."  I  have  already 
commented  on  the  difficulty  of  the  magistrate's 
position,  but  it  seems  futile  to  hope  for  any  improve- 
ments unless  the  Coolie  is  legally  represented  at  the 
trial. 

It  is  part  of  the  overseer's  duty  to  appear  against 
the  immigrants  at  the  police-court,  the  manager 
seldom  requiring  to  attend.  The  Commissioners 
think  *'  it  is  much  to  be  feared  that  it  is  considered 
as  much  the  duty  of  the  overseer  to  get  the  men 
fined  or  imprisoned,  whom  he  appears  against,  as  to 
get  the  work  done  which  he  takes  down."  They 
instance  a  case  in  which  a  manager  was  summoned 
for  assaulting  a  Chinese  The  case  was  adjourned  in 
order  that  the  manager  might  summon  another  over- 
seer, the  one  he  took  with  him  having  sworn  that  he  did 
not  see  what  occurred.  It  was  suggested  that  the  over- 
seer was  dismissed  in  consequence ;  but  this,  in  the 
Commissioners'  opinion,  was  disproved.  "  Still  it 
appears  that  it  never  entered  the  head  of  the  manager  to 
as/i  the  overseer  wJiether  he  had  seen  all  that  took  place 
before  summoni)ig  trim  as  sole  ivitness.  A  mistake  that 
might  have  cost  him  dear.  In  fact,  he  took  his  over- 
seer's evidence  for  granted.  It  is  almost  needless  to 
observe  that  such  a  question  is  a  different  thing  Iroin 
asking  a  defendant  beforehand  'what  evidence  he 
could  give.'  This  taking  of  evidence  for  granted  is 
the  bane  of  justice  as  between  class  and  class." 


236  THE  COOLIE. 

And  lastly,  as  a  culmination  of  his  disabilities,  he 
caiDiof^  under  the  hninigrafion  Ordinances^  give  evidence 
in  his  mvn  case.  Perhaps  nothing  will  more  startle  the 
reader  of  these  pages  than  to  learn  that  in  a  matter 
professedly  of  civil  contract  the  mouth  of  the  unfortu- 
nate defendant  contractor  is  shut,  "  It  was  pointed 
out  to  us,"  say  the  Commissioners,*  "  by  Mr.  Huggins 
that  an  immigrant  defendant  under  the  Labour  Law, 
although  tried  for  a  breach  of  contract,  which  is  a 
civil  offence,  nevertheless  is  made  to  occupy  the  posi- 
tion of  a  criminal.  It  may  perhaps  be  conjectured 
that  this  anomaly  has  crept  in  to  some  extent  by  acci- 
dent. In  the  old  days  of  free  labour  which  succeeded 
the  apprenticeship,  the  difficulty  of  compelling  a 
labourer  to  work  was  found  insurmountable.  *  I 
conceive,'  said  Mr.  Brumell,  now  sheriff  of  Demerara 
(as  quoted  in  the  Report  of  Governor  Barkiy's  Com- 
mission, published  in  1850),  'that  there  can  be  no 
strict  enforcement  of  a  contract  between  two  parties, 
one  of  whom  is  known  and  responsible,  and  the  other 
unknown,  and  possessing  only  a  cloth  round  his 
loins.'  This  often-repeated  argument  for  a  penal 
contract  law,  when  reinforced  by  considerations 
peculiar  to  the  case  of  an  immigrant  under  indenture, 
who  has  a  debt  to  work  out  to  his  employer  and  to 
the  estate,  was  sufficient  to  justify  the  substitution  of 
penalties,  such  as  fine  and  imprisonment,  in  the  place 
of  damages,  by  way  of  sanction  to  a  contract.  But  it 
is  hard  to  see  by  what  logic  the  liability  to  fine  and 
imprisonment,  even  with  hard  labour,  should  of  neces- 
sity draw  with  it  all  those  incidents  which  the  Eng- 
lish law  attaches  to  the  position  of  a  man  charged 
with  a  criminal  offence.  The  indentured  labourer 
finds  himself  convicted  often  upon  the  sole  evidence 
of  his  employer  or  a  subordinate.  He  is  not  allowed 
to  give  evidence  in  his  own  behalf.     It  is   true,  it 

•  Report,  &c.,  H  394,  395. 


REMEDIES  A  GAINST  EM  PI  OVERS.         2  3  7 

might  not  make  much  difference  in  the  case  if  he 
were.  As  it  is,  a  good  magistrate  will  always  ask 
him  for  his  defence,  and  show  by  his  demeanour  that 
whether  or  not  he  accepted  it  as  true,  he  at  least 
regards  it  with  consideration.  But  we  may  be  per- 
fectly sure  that  there  is  no  emigrant  so  deficient  in 
the  instinct  of  justice  as  not  to  perceive,  so  soon 
as  he  begins  to  perceive  anything  of  the  manner  in 
which  business  is  carried  on,  that  he,  the  defendant, ' 
and  his  employer,  the  prosecutor,  have  not  equal 
rights  of  telling  their  respective  stories  before  the 
law. 

"  If  the  converse  case  of  the  rule  came  within  their 
experience — if  they  were  in  the  habit  of  bringing 
charges  against  managers,  and  of  seeing  them  tongue- 
tied  while  their  character  was  sworn  away — they 
might  recognise  an  even-handedness,  if  not  an  equity, 
in  the  law.  But  as  a  matter  of  their  daily  experience, 
a  few  exceptions  set  aside,  the  penal  'enforcement  of 
the  Labour  Law  has  hitherto  been  an  enforcement 
against  the  labourer  alone." 

Both  principle  and  policy  demand  that  to  the 
rigid  powers  of  enforcing  his  contract  against  the 
Coolie  conferred  on  the  employer,  the  former  should 
have  corresponding  facilities  against  the  latter:  on 
principle,  as  a  simple  matter  of  equal  justice  between 
two  contracting  parties ;  on  policy,  because  the 
greater  the  facilities  afforded  the  Coolie  of  main- 
taining his  rights,  the  less  will  be  the  likelihood  of 
their  invasion,  as  the  less  will  be  the  inducement  to 
attempt  it. 

We  thus  see  that  practically  almost  every  method 
of  asserting  or  of  defending  his  rights  by  law  is 
absent  from  the  immigrant.  He  is  in  the  hiinds  of  a 
system  which  elaborately  twists  and  turns  him  about, 
but  always  leaves  him  face  to  face  with  an  impossi- 
bility.   Until  I  had  read  the  Commissioners'  Report  I 


238  THE  COOLIE. 

had  no  idea  that  the  situation  was  so  bad  as  it  is 
proved  to  be.  With  such  blots  upon  the  legis- 
lation of  British  Guiana,  with  such  miserably  inade- 
quate provisions  of  remedies  for  those  whose  terrible 
disadvantage  should  have  been  an  appeal  to  legis- 
lative sympathies,  if  not  to  legislative  sense  of  right, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  there  is  disquiet 
in  the  Coolie  camp  and  trepidation  among  the 
employers.  I  should  be  sorry  to  see  any  people  so 
successfully  degraded  as  to  sit  down  quietly  under 
disadvantages  so  monstrous.  I  should  be  sorry  to 
see  any  English  Governor  venturing  to  avail  himself 
of  an  armed  police  force  and  Enfield  rifles  to  suppress 
the  righteous  indignation  of  people  subjected  to  these 
disabilities.  And  I  shall  be  astonished  if  an  English 
Government  and  an  English  public,  learning  of  these 
things,  do  not  very  determinedly,  very  quietly,  with- 
out the  least  fanaticism  in  the  world,  set  themselves 
to  see  that  they  shall  be  remedied. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

WAGES. 

IT  will  be  necessary  to  enter  somewhat  minutely 
into  the  details  of  the  wages-rates  in  the  colony 
which  are  afforded  by  the  Commissioners.  They 
investigated  these  points  with  great  thoroughness, 
and  with  results  rather  surprising  to  any  one  who 
had  heard  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Oliver,  a  gentleman 
deservedly  occupying  a  high  position  in  the  colony — 
at  the  head  of  one  of  its  principal  firms.  The  local 
Defence  Committee  established  by  the  planters  had 
issued  a  series  of  papers  to  the  managers  of  the  various 
estates  calling  for  certain  returns,  with  the  anticipated 
purpose  of  refuting  Mr.  Des  Voeux's  exaggerated 
charges.  These  returns  were  with  great  labour,  and 
in  the  most  admirably  business-like  way,  tabulated 
for  presentation  to  the  Commissioners,  Mr.  Oliver,  as 
chairman  of  the  committee,  producing  them,  and  lend- 
ing the  authority  of  his  own  faith  in  them.  His  high 
character  rendered  him,  personally,  absolutely  free 
from  suspicion,  but  unfortunately  the  Commissioners 
deemed  it  their  duty  to  test  the  practical  value  of 
these  returns,  and  the  dry  and  caustic  way  in  which 
they  dispose  of  some  of  them  is  peculiarly  significant. 
As  the  wages  question  is  one  upon  which  depends 
not  only  the  subordinate,  yet  important,  question  of 
justice  or  injustice  to  the  Coolie  himself  in  that  matter 


240  THE  COOLIE. 

of  officically  representing  the  average  earnings  in  the 
colony  to  be  "  easily  "  from  \s.  i\d.  to  ^s.  a  day,  but  also 
the  larger,  and  to  us  more  serious,  question  whether 
the  average  is  still  sufficient  to  sustain  a  further  im- 
migration, I  shall  transcribe  from  the  Report  the 
analysis  of  this  part  of  Mr.  Oliver's  evidence  : — 

"  Form  No.  2,  the  most  ambitious  of  them  all,  pro- 
fesses to  give  the  average  daily  earnings  for  the  year 
of  all  classes  of  immigrants,  estimated  for  the  days 
on  which  they  have  actually  been  at  work.  The 
immigrants  are  divided  into  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  again  subdivided  into  effectives  and 
non-effectives.  Mr,  Oliver  gives  the  following  sum- 
mary : — 

"  '  With  regard  to  Form  No.  2, 1  may  observe  that  it 
has  not  any  special  reference  to  Mr.  Des  Voeux's 
letter  ;  but  we  have  obtained  the  information  as  a 
guide  to  the  Commissioners  when  they  go  into  the 
country.  They  will  then  have  an  opportunity  of 
checking  the  returns  by  personal  inquiry  and  obser- 
vation. The  returns  from  115  estates  show  that  the 
effective  Indian  immigrants,  the  better  class  of  male 
Coolies'  effectives  we  call  them,  earn  on  an  average 
34-94  cents,  or  as  nearly  as  possible  35  cents  a  day, 
Ineffectives,  the  weak,  sickly  people,  earn  only  20 
cents  a  day,  effective  women  2^  cents,  ineffectives  151- 
cents,  and  children  13  cents.  Of  the  Chinese  under 
indenture,  effective  men  earn  35  cents,  non-effectives 
20  cents,  effective  women  26  cents,  ineffectives  15 
cents,  and  children  13  cents.  These  are  the  people 
under  indenture  on  estates.' 

"The  effectives  are  said  to  be — 

" '  All  who  are  able  to  do  work,  not  those  in 
hospital,  but  all  the  w^eak  and  sickly,  who  are  not  yet 
able  to  go  out  and  do  some  amount  of  work.  Now  as 
to  the  free  people  resident  on  estates.  Coolies  first : 
effective  men  earn  on  an  average  35^  cents,  ineffectives 


WAGES.  24, 

21  cents,  effective  women  25  cents,  ineffective  16I- 
cents,  and  children  13  cents.  Of  free  Chinese,  the 
effective  men  earn  381-  cents,  ineffective  24  cents, 
effective  women  25  j-  cents,  ineffective  17  cents,  and 
children  13  cents.' 

*'  We  notice  that  the  instructions  sent  with  this 
return  were  hardly  definite  enough.  They  run,  *  You 
will  observe  that  we  have  divided  the  immigrants  into 
two  classes,  effective  and  non-effective.  We  would 
suggest  that  your  best  mode  of  arriving  at  the  result 
would  be  to  take  the  total  amount  paid  to  the  man  or 
woman,  as  the  case  may  be,  for  the  last  twelve 
months,  and  divide  by  the  number  of  days  at  work, 
two  half- days  to  count  as  one  whole  day.'  No  rule  is 
given  for  the  classification  into  effectives  and  non- 
effectives, which  has  accordingly  been  carried  out  on 
the  most  various  principles,  even  by  the  most  careful 
of  the  compilers ;  jNIr.  Field,  for  instance,  counting 
q8  per  cent,  of  his  male  immigrants  as  effective,  whik; 
Mr.  Kelly  makes  out  29  per  cent,  of  non-effectives. 

"  Without  going  into  a  detailed  examination  of  these 
returns,  we  think  it  necessary,  before  putting  forward 
our  somewhat  different  conclusions,  to  point  out  a  few 
of  the  statements  and  figures  which  render  them  as  a 
whole  untrustworthy. 

"  I .  The  sum  entered  on  the  return  from  Plantation 
Cumings  Lodge  as  the  average  daily  earnings 
throughout  the  year  of  effective  male  indentured 
Indian  immigrants  for  each  day  on  which  work  was 
done  was  64  ccn^s.  The  abstract  we  have  ourselves 
made  of  the  pay-list  on  this  estate  shows  that  «<?;/j 
0/  the  indcutiircd  labourers^  drivers  excepted,  coiild 
have  earned  viore  than  46  ce>its  as  a  daily  a^'crage^ 
and  that  the  best  man  only  earned  that  sum  per 
diem  on  the  days  that  he  was  actually  at  work.  This 
is  taking  the  number  of  days  he  worked  during  the 
year  at  260,  which  is  but  a  moderate  estimate  fojr  the 

R 


242  THE  COOLIE. 

best  man  on  the  estate.  This  mistake  is  easily- 
accounted  for.  We  were  informed  when  we  visited 
the  plantation  that  the  return  had  not  been  taken 
from  an  actual  analysis  of  the  pay-list,  but  was  rather 
an  estimate  of  what  it  was  known  a  good  man  could 
earn.  There  is  a  foot-note  to  the  table : — *  The 
system  on  which  the  books  of  this  estate  are  kept  (?) 
renders  it  impossible  to  give  this  return  correctly.' 

"  2.  Another  return,  that  of  the  Bel  Air  estate,  gives 
the  rate  of  wages  for  the  same  class  of  immigrants  at 
56  cents  a  day.  On  examining  the  return  we  found 
that  only  about  half  the  real  number  of  residents  on 
the  estate  had  been  accounted  for,  among  the  several 
divisions  by  which  the  total  earnings  of  the  pay-list 
had  been  reduced  into  daily  rates  of  w^ages. 

"3.  On  Plantation  Schoon  Ord  the  daily  wages  of 
the  same  class  were  entered  at  48  cents.  263  men 
were  entered  at  this  rate,  and  Mr.  Arnold  stated 
before  us,  in  evidence,  that  these  men  generally 
averaged  four  days'  work  in  a  week ;  therefore,  sup- 
posing them  to  have  worked  200  days  in  the  year, 
their  total  earnings  would  be  200  x  263  x  48  cents, 
or  $25,428.  In  referring  to  Form  No.  14  in  the  series 
where  the  total  earnings  are  given  of  the  whole  body 
of  male  Indian  immigrants,  indentured  and  unin- 
dentured,  effective  and  ineffective,  together,  w^e  find 
it  stated  that  only  $10,471,  that  is  to  say  at  two- 
fifths  of  the  sum  that  at  48  cents  per  working  day, 
ought  to  have  been  earned  by  the  effective  indentured 
males  only.  The  return  No.  14  is  not  likely  to  be 
incorrect  so  far  as  immigrants  are  concerned,  as  it  is 
easily  obtained  from  the  totals  entered  in  the  pay- 
lists  of  the  estates,  which  are  regularly  carried 
forward  to  the  end  of  the  year,  This  return  Mr. 
Arnold  considers  must  be  correct,  within  a  very  few 
dollars.  Here  again  the  discrepancy  was  accounted 
for,  when  Mr.  Arnold  informed  us,  on  the  occasion 


WAGES.  «43 

of  our  visit  to  the  estate,  that  he  had  made  out  Form 
No.  2  from  his  own  knowledge  of  what  an  effective 
East  Indian  labourer  could  earn,  without  going- 
through  the  laborious  process  of  taking  out  the 
averages  from  his  pay-lists.* 

*'  It  appears  to  us  from  our  inquiries  on  estates  that 
scarcely  any  of  these  returns  were  really  made  ouc 
from  analysis  of  the  pay-lists.  Some  were  made  up 
by  ascertaining  the  rates  earned  by  five  or  six  of  the 
men,  known  to  be  regularly  earning  good  wages, 
without  allowance  for  the  deficiencies  of  others ;  and 
the  rest  of  the  same  class,  numbering  often  from  one 
to  three  hundred,  were  then  set  down  at  the  same 
rate.  In  some  cases  where  the  rates  were  really 
taken  from  the  pay-lists,  it  was  found  that  the  days 
spent  at  work  were  not  separately  entered,  but  only 
the  amount  paid  when  a  man  had  finished  a  certain 
piece  of  work.  For  instance,  there  might  be  only 
one  entry  for  a  w^hole  week  of  20  bitts,  or  $1.60, 
which  the  labourer  could  not  have  earned  in  less 
than  three  or  four  days.  In  most  of  these  cases  the 
number  of  days  worked  had  been  estimated  by  guess. 
Finally,  too  many  of  the  returns  sent  in  presented 
the  unsatisfactory  aspect,  in  a  statistical  sense,  of  a 
series  of  round  numbers. 

*'  What  has  been  said  of  the  Indian  immigrants 
applies  equally  to  the  Chinese.  The  danger  of  rely- 
ing upon  a  series  of  returns  of  this  character,  unless 
they  are  bondjide  extracts  from  documents,  lies  in  the 
tendency  to  confound  the  real  average  with  what  is 
called  '  a  good  average  rate  of  earnings' — meaning 
the  averag-e  earned  by  a  good  man  working  well.  To 
this  tendency  there  is,  in  fact,  no  corrective  ;  so  that 
the  taking  of  a  great  number  of  estates  together  is  no 
security,  as  sometimes  happens,  in  taking  averages 
for  correctness. 

•  See  another  btatcmcnt  of  wa^jes  by  llic  pioi)iiclor,  ante,  p.  55. 


244  TIJE  COOLIE. 

"  Form  No.  5  attempts  to  show  the  amount  a  really 
able-bodied  agricultural  labourer,  whether  Indian, 
Chinese,  African,  or  Creole,  would  earn  at  field  labour, 
working  forty-five  hours  in  the  week.  The  average 
is  given  at  $3.30.  It  will  be  seen  from  another  part 
of  this  Report  that  an  effective  male  immigrant  can 
earn  at  taskwork  in  the  field  about  5  cents  an  hour. 
This  makes  only  $2.25  a  week.  One  employer  consi- 
ders that  such  a  labourer,  a  Coolie,  could  earn  Si-,  in 
the  time ;  others  put  it  at  20^-.,  and  one  actually  at 
305.  The  week  of  six  days,  at  seven  and  a  half  hours 
per  day,  is  taken  as  the  full  amount  of  what  all  able- 
bodied  men  might  do.  It  deserv^es  to  be  remembered 
that  this  is  not  timework,  but  taskwork.  It  is  done 
under  greater  pressure,  and  more  is  done  in  the  time. 
Without  allowing  for  the  climate,  it  represents  more 
work  than  would  be  done  in  the  same  time  in  Eng- 
land ;  allowing  for  the  climate,  it  represents  a  larger 
time  spent  at  work  than  the  employers,  as  a  fact, 
expect.  However,  we  do  not  say  that  it  is  beyond 
the  capacity  of  an  able-bodied  Coolie  to  work  seven 
hours  daily  for  six  days  in  the  week. 

"  But  ]\Ir.  Oliver  says,  *  To  do  a  task  only  occupies 
about  four  hours,'  and  calculates  that  twelve  tasks 
might  be  done  in  the  week.  This  is  correct  of  the 
Negro  ;  but  an  ordinary  able-bodied  Coolie  could  not 
do  a  task  in  four  hours,  or  nearly  so.  In  fact,  hardly 
any  of  them  could.  The  stress  of  taskwork  will  be 
best  appreciated  by  remembering  that  the  Coolies 
prefer  thirteen  to  sixteen  hours'  work  in  the  buildings 
where  they  are  not  pressed  to  seven  hours'  work  in 
the  buildings  where  they  are.' " 

The  verdant  indifference  to  facts  exhibited  by  some 
of  the  managers  in  drawing  up  these  returns  strikes 
me  with  regret  as  one  of  the  most  discreditable  features 
of  the  whole  inquiry,  and  is  made  worse  by  the  egre- 
gious deception  practised  by  their  subordinates  upon 


WAGES.  24s 

Mr.  Oliver,  and  the  very  respectable  Committee  who 
were  thus  made  to  stand  sponsors  for  statements 
so  irresponsible.  It  may  be  that  the  form  in  which 
the  blank  schedules  were  made  out  misled  the  rural 
managers — as,  for  instance,  the  instruction  in  No.  1 1, 
which,  said  its  issuers,  "is  /or  the  purpose  of  shozv- 
ing  that  the  importation  of  Coolies,  instead  of 
lowering  the  rate  of  wages,  has  increased  it."  It 
is  just  possible  the  managers  may  have  conceived 
this  to  be  a  direction  to  prove  the  proposition, 
instead  of  to  state  the  facts.  In  effect  they  did 
neither.  "  The  size  of  the  task  during  the  time  of 
slavery  [A]  differed  from  that  during  the  apprentice- 
ship [B] ;  and  many  customary  tasks  set  at  the 
present  day  differ  materially  in  magnitude  from  both. 
The  consequent  dilemma  was  solved  by  the  managers 
of  estates  in  a  variety  of  ways,  ]Most  of  them  fol- 
lowed column  B,  a  few  A,  and  some  took  for  granted 
the  dimensions  customary  on  their  own  estates.  It 
is  obvious  that  a  general  average  calculated  on  such 
data  represents,  in  fact,  nothing  at  all." 

The  Commissioners  report  upon  the  wages  under 
two  heads: — i.  The  rates  usually  paid  for  the  per- 
formance of  given  quantities  of  work.  2.  The  sums 
generally  earned  by  immigrants  and  others,  daily, 
weekly,  or  hourly. 

I.  To  understand  the  work  hereinafter  designated 
under  this  head,  the  reader  will  only  have  to  turn 
to  the  descriptions  of  estate  work  in  Chapter  IV. 
The  field  work  is  paid  by  the  task. 

Di<jj:jing  trenches,  12  ft.  wide  and  5  ft.  deep,  per  rod  of  12}  ft.,  Roc.  to  960. 
I^'Kfi'"ri  "^^^^  small  drains,  2  ft.  wide  and  2  it.  deep,  per  rod,  4c.  to  8c.  or 

5c.  to  6c. 
Cleaning  out  small  drains,  I  ft.  or  i  shovel,  per  rod,  ic,  ijc,  and  2c. 
Drilling,  i  shovel  deep  and  2  ft.  wide,  for  3  rods,  8c. 

Weeding  and  moulding,  (  according  to  ground,  itc,  per  acre,  $2.00, 
Weeding  and  thrashing,  \      ^2.50,  53.00,  $3.50. 


246  THE  COOLIE. 

"Relie\-ing"  {i.e.,  ranging  loose  trash  on  trash  ban1<s),  per  acre,  $2.io  to 

$2.50. 
Cane-cutting,  per  cord,  48c.  to  54c. ;   per  judge  punt,  96c.  to  $1.08. 

The  Commissioners  explain :  "  The  rates  we  have 
given  for  field  work  are  those  generally  paid.  It  is 
impossible  to  fix  a  given  rate  for  any  kind  of  work, 
and  hold  to  it  in  all  cases.  The  state  of  the  weather, 
the  nature  of  the  soil,  and  condition  of  the  field,  must 
all  be  taken  into  account.  This,  in  cases  of  disputes 
between  employers  and  labourers,  can  only  be  done 
by  some  experienced  person  visiting  the  field  when 
the  question  arises,  inspecting  the  work  done,  and 
estimating  to  the  best  of  his  ability  what  the  value  of 
the  work  is." 

The  work  in  the  buildings,  being  of  a  totally 
different  character  from  that  in  the  field,  is  paid 
diiferently.  Long  as  are  the  hours  sometimes  in 
these  steaming  places,  the  immigrants  prefer  the 
work  to  any  on  the  estate.  The  measure  of  work  is 
the  number  of  clarifiers  or  *'  boxes "  of  juice  made 
in  a  day.  Should  this  number,  which,  I  believe,  is 
usually  forty,  not  be  reached,  there  is  a  deduction 
from  the  day's  wages ;  should  they  be  exceeded,  on 
most  plantations,  the  workmen  are  paid  something 
extra.  In  case  the  machinery  breaks  down,  the  alter- 
native is  given  to  the  Coolies  to  go  to  field  work, 
or  be  paid  only  a  proportionate  amount,  and  go 
home.  The  stories  told  me  by  immigrants  of  the 
tremendous  strain  sometimes  put  upon  them  in  the 
buildings  appear  to  be  confirmed  by  the  Report.  I 
used  to  see  the  smoking  chimneys  which  told  of 
grinding  going  on  late  at  night,  and  the  first  streak 
of  dawn  in  the  morning  showed  them  to  be  still,  or 
early  again,  at  work.  A  gentleman  very  highly 
esteemed  in  the  colony,  and  a  thorough  friend  of  the 
planters,  told  me  that  the  excessive  work  in  the 
buildings  was  one  of  the  blots  on  the  system. 


WAGES.  247 

The  employers  get  on  without  any  difficulty,  because 
work  in  the  buildings  is  better  liked  than  field  work. 
They  are  occasionally  tempted  by  the  facilities  this 
predilection  affords  them  to  exact  too  much  labour ; 
sometimes  without  giving  extra  pay.  "  It  is  not  un- 
common, especially  on  the  Saturdays  and  last  days  of 
a  bout  of  work,  for  fire  to  be  put  to  the  engine  at  three 
a.m.,  or  even  earlier,  for  the  gangs  ^o  be  called  at  four 
and  to  be  kept  ivorking  till  -near  7nidnight,  We  have 
even  found  instances  of  twenty-three  hours' continuous 
labour  without  any  relay  of  labourers,  and  we  hav'e 
noticed  the  carelessness  and  waste  produed  by  excess 
of  labour  demoralising  a  gang.  The  average  number 
of  hours  is  about  fifteen  a  day  ;  but  we  have  found  in- 
stances where  taey  had  been  working  for  eighteen  to 
twenty-two  hours  without  a  change  of  hands  and  with- 
out any  extra  pay  given.  This  was  the  case  on  Skeldotty 
Canefield,  Johanna  Cecilia,  and  Leonora  estates. 

"  This  is  one  among  many  instances  which  show 
that  the  ability  to  contract  on  equal  terms  with  his  em- 
ployer is  not  within  reach  of  the  indentured  immigrant, 
and  serves  to  establish  the  conclusion  that  all — even 
the  minutest  operations  of  the  system — must  be  sub- 
jected to  official  superiors  in  a  contract.  We  consider 
that  work  in  the  buildings  ought  to  be  paid  for  by 
time,  and  not  by  the  task.  Almost  every  employer  we 
have  spoken  to  on  the  subject  says  the  immigrants 
prefer  work  in  the  buildings  to  that  in  the  field.  It 
seems^  therefore,  that  there  would  not  be  much  diffi- 
culty in  getting  them  to  work  steadily  by  the  hour. 
Work  in  the  buildings  would  be  held  out  as  a  reward 
to  good  labourers."  *  Moreover,  the  Commissioners 
complain  that  on  the  estates  where  defective  ma- 
chinery, &c.,  led  to  long  hours,  the  immigrants  were 
not  paid  more  than  on  others  where  this  was  not  the 
case.     The  rates  in  the  buildings  are  as  follows : — 

•  '  342. 343.  y^i- 


248  THE  COOLIE. 

Enj^neers,  carpenters,  coopers,  &c per  day  60c.  to  §1.00 

Head  boilemien   .     .     , »  56c.  ,,  64c. 

Firemen >>  ^oc.  ,,  48c. 

Millfeeders  (for  cane-traveller) ,,  32c.  ,,  48c. 

Cane-tlirowcrs ,,  24c.  „  32c. 

Boxmen,  for  carrying  off  damp  megass          ...  ,,  32c.  ,,  40c. 

Liquor  pump  men  or  lads ,,  20c.  ,,  32c. 

As  clarifiers,  men  and  lads „  i6c.  „  40c. 

In  distillery „  20c.  „  48c. 

Porters,  by  job ,,  32c.  „  48c. 

At  centrifugals — feeding  them  and  watering  sugar  ^ 

(a  skilful  operation) /  "  ^^^"  "  ^^' 

Female  sugar  carriers — "common  process  "       .     .  ,,  24c.  „  40c. 

^Megass  carriers — women  generally „  24c.  ,,  32*. 

Digging  and  packing  megass „  32c. 

Children  and  convalescents  spreading  megass     .     .  „  12c.  „    24c. 

*'  At  Zeelngt  we  found  a  Coolie  man  employed  as 
liead  pan-boiler,  who  was  under  indenture,  and  only- 
paid  48  cents  a  day,  which  was  much  less  than  a 
Negro  or  other  person  would  have  accepted.  The 
manager,  Mr.  Menzies,  said  he  had  paid  $50  to 
have  him  taught  to  work  the  pan  ;  but  even  taking 
this  into  consideration  the  pay  was  too  little,  for  the 
manager  would  save  about  $70  to  $80  the  first  year 
after  his  apprenticeship." 

Whatever  may  be  thought  about  the  field  work,  the 
buildings'  work  seems  to  be  of  a  kind  that  would  best 
be  worked  under  a  fixed  tariff. 

2.  The  tables  of  average  earnings  prepared  by  the 
Commissioners  have  not  as  yet  been  published  ;  but 
the  general  results  of  their  analysis  are  extremely 
pertinent.  They  first  compare  the  returns  on  two 
great  estates  —  Albion  and  Great  Diamond.  "On 
Albion  effective  male  Indian  adults  average  32^  cents 
a  day  for  every  day  they  work  during  the  year ;  in- 
effective 29I  cents,  while  on  Great  Diamond  they 
earned  respectively  2^^%  cents  and  13^  cents.  Eft'ec- 
tive  females  on  Albion  265^,  and  on  Great  Diamojid  15I 
cents.  The  differences  are  partly  owing  to  the  fact 
that  Mr.  Kelly  has  only  entered  7 1  per  cent,  of  his 


WAGES.  249 

males  and  go  per  cent,  of  his  females  as  effectives, 
whereas  Mr  Field  has  98  per  cent,  of  his  males  and 
92  per  cent,  of  his  females  as  effectives.  Mr.  Kelly's 
appear  to  have  earned  20  per  cent,  more  than  Mr. 
Field's." 

Taking  the  wages  of  about  8,000  persons,  the  Com- 
missioners found  that  /or/y  per  cent,  have  earned  the 
5^.  and  upwards  per  week  ;  many  of  these  8,000  per- 
haps only  working  two,  three,  or  four  days  in  the 
week.  "  These  returns  and  some  figures  taken  from 
an  analysis  of  pay-lists  of  Plantations  Farm  and  Cuni- 
iiigs  Lodge^  which  we  shall  give  hereafter,  show  that 
even  if  the  males  are  taken  alone  at  X^di'&t  forty  per  cent, 
of  those  who  work  in  a  given  week  do  not  earn  five  shillings 
and  upwards. 

*'  It  has  been  stated,  and  we  have  ascertained  the 
fact  for  ourselves,  that  able-bodied  men  (or  efficient 
male  immigrants  as  they  are  called  in  the  returns 
furnished  by  the  Planters'  Committee)  generally 
average  from  four  to  five  days'  work  in  a  week.  Mr. 
Field,  in  a  foot-note  to  one  of  these  returns,  has  given 
a  very  valuable  statement  showing  the  number  of 
persons  of  each  class  absent  from  work  daily,  from 
sickness,  leave,  or  other  causes.  Out  of  a  gang  of  327 
effectives  63  have  been  absent  every  day,  taking  the 
working  days  in  the  year  at  313.  Thus  a  little  more 
than  one-fifth  were  absent  daily.  His  eifective 
labourers  must,  therefore,  have  turned  out  to  work 
nearly  five  days  in  the  week ;  but  as  it  is  generally 
the  case  that  they  do  not  do  much  on  Mondays  and 
seldom  work  on  Saturday,  the  number  of  full  days' 
work  may  be  said  to  be  about  four. 

"  Two  sets  of  pay-lists  have  been  examined  by  us 
from  the  estates  Cumings  Lodge  and  Farm,  the 
figures  drawn  from  which  will  further  serve  to  show 
what  the  earnings  of  indentured  immigrants  really 
are.      Mr.   Clementson    the  proprietor   of   Cumings 


2  50  THE  COOLIE. 

Lodge,  is  generally  spoken  of  as  a  man  who  manages 
his  immigrants  with  great  skill,  and  who  never  has 
occasion  to  bring  any  of  his  labourers  before  the 
magistrate  for  breaches  of  the  Immigration  Laws. 
When  we  visited  the  estate,  the  people  appeared 
quite  content,  and  did  not  come  forward  with  any 
complaints,  though  they  had  ample  opportunity  of 
doing  so.  His  pay-list  contained  the  building,  shovel, 
and  weeding  gangs  all  in  one,  and  thus  presented 
facilities  for  ascertaining  the  whole  amount  earned 
by  each  person,  which  were  not  so  readily  opened  to 
us  on  many  estates.  The  wages  earned  by  each  indi- 
vidual for  twelve  months  have  been  taken  from  this 
pay-list,  and  give  a  very  good  idea  of  the  earnings  of 
immigrants  on  well-managed  estates.  Those  who 
died,  deserted,  or  left  the  estate  during  the  year,  and 
one  or  two  women,  who  appeared  scarcely  to  have 
worked  at  all,  have  been  omitted,  in  order  that  the 
return  may  convey,  a  fair  idea  of  the  earnings  of  immi- 
grants who  have  worked  during  the  year  on  one 
estate.  Two  hundred  and  thirty-one  persons  on  Cum- 
ings  Lodge  earned  $13,239.62,  equal  to  an  average 
of  857.31  each.  One  hundred  and  eighty-five  of  these 
were  men,  forty-five  women,  and  a  boy.  The  highest 
amount  earned  by  any  of  them  was  %\  19.76,  equal  to 
an  average  of  $2.30  a  week.  From  his  being  a  first- 
rate  man  on  an  estate  noted  for  the  superior  cha- 
racter of  its  people,  we  may  fairly  assume  that  he  ave- 
raged five  days'  work  in  a  week.  His  average  daily 
earnings  would,  therefore,  have  been  46  cents  ;  of 
the  remainder,  94  men  and  2  women  earned  more 
than  55.  a  week.  Thus  90  men  and  43  women  out 
of  the  numbers  taken  did  not  earn  55.  a  week. 
On  reference  to  the  visits  to  estates  it  will  be 
found  that  on  Cumings  Lodge  some  of  the  men 
and  women  earn  very  little,  and  this  will  be  found 
to  be  the  case  on  every  estate,  but  it  does  not  follow 


WAGES.  251 

rom  this  that  they  are  suffering  from  want  of  food 
or  other  necessaries.  Some  are  regular  malingerers, 
who  will  not  work,  and  are  being  well  fed  in  gaol ; 
others  are  women  whose  husbands  are  earning  high 
wages,  who  do  not  care  to  work  themselves ;  while 
others  are  patients  in  hospital,  where  they  are  fed 
gratis.  The  extract  from  the  Farm  pay-lists  are  not 
quite  so  complete  as  those  we  have  just  dealt  with, 
because  the  names  of  the  immigrants  were  entered 
in  two  books — the  building  and  the  field  pay-list. 
In  the  field  pay-list  their  names  were  entered  in 
alphabetical  order,  but  in  the  other  according  to  the 
work  they  were  doing ;  and  they  were  not  always 
spelt  in  the  same  way.  There  were  274  persons  in 
the  gang,  but  98  have  been  omitted;  78  of  these 
were  either  persons  who  had  died  or  who  had  been 
in  hospital,  deserted  or  absented  themselves  from 
work  from  other  reasons,  such  as  nursing,  pregnancy, 
&c.,  for  a  great  part  of  the  time  over  which  our 
examination  extended ;  the  remaining  20  were  per- 
sons who  had  worked  in  the  buildings,  or  at  other 
occupations,  but  the  amount  of  whose  earnings  we 
were  not  able  to  ascertain  quite  correctly;  of  the  176 
who  remain  the  earnings  were  as  follows :  2  men, 
who  were  foremen  or  drivers,  earned  $76.80  and 
$72.80  respectively,  during  25  consecutive  weeks, 
equal  to  an  average  of  $3.07  and  $2.91  weekly.  The 
highest  amounts  earned  by  any  of  the  labourers, 
leaving  out  the  drivers,  were  $64.24  and  $48.52,  or 
$2.57  and  $1.94  a  week;  of  those  left,  numbering  172, 
only  43  averaged  as  much  as  5s.  a  week.  When  it 
is  remembered  that  the  176  persons  taken  were 
selected  from  a  gang  of  274  persons,  all  who  had 
been  much  absent  in  hospital,  or  elsewhere,  being 
omitted,  this  return  must  be  taken  as  a  favourable 
statement  of  the  average  earnings  of  healthy  immi- 
grants on  this  estate. 


252  THE  COOLIE. 

'*]Mr.  Kelly  has  favoured  us  with  some  returns 
showing  the  wages  earned  by  sixteen  of  the  labourers 
on  his  estate.  From  the  number  of  days  they  have 
worked,  and  the  amounts  they  have  earned,  we  infer 
that  they  were  first-class  men.  Taking  all  of  them 
together,  they  have  averaged  more  than  five  days 
work  in  a  week  throughout  the  year.  The  best  man 
worked  for  283  days,  and  averaged  49  cents  a  day; 
and  he  who  earned  least  worked  for  278  days,  and 
averaged  30  cents  a  day.  From  the  returns  of  Messrs. 
Field  and  Kelly,  together  with  the  tables  referred  to 
and  other  data  already  given,  it  is  evident  that  very 
few  immigrant  labourers  average  48  cents  a  day  for 
five  days  in  a  week.  It  will  also  be  seen  that  of  those 
classed  as  effectives,  those  who  earn  above  36  cents  a 
day  are  few  compared  with  those  who  earn  from  24  to 
36  cents. 

"  We  believe,  from  what  we  have  seen,  and  taking 
these  data  as  far  as  they  go  to  assist  us  to  form  an 
opinion,  that  the  average  earnings  of  this  class  of 
immigrants,  drivers,  artisans,  and  other  headmen 
excepted,  throughout  the  colony,  are  about  28  cents  a 
day  for  every  day  that  they  do  a  fair  day's  work. 
28  cents  is  i^.  zd.,  and  is  equal  to  not  quite  15  annas. 
When  employed  by  the  task  in  the  field,  they  average 
6  hours  at  work,  and  earn  about  5  cents  an  hour. 
About  four-fifths  of  the  male  adult  immigrants  may 
be  included  in  this  class.  Women  earn  from  16  to  32 
cents,  but  do  not,  as  a  rule,  work  as  many  days  as  the 
men.  Children  between  the  ages  of  lo  and  15  earn 
from  8  to  16  cents  a  day." 

It  may  be  as  well  to  mention  here  the  case  of  a 
"  Coolie  on  Chateau  Margot  Estate  who  had  earned  a 
great  deal  of  money ;  and,  as  far  as  we  could  learn, 
only  by  agricultural  labour.  Ujoodha,  No..  123,  ex 
ship  Oasis,  who  arrived  here  in  1865,  earned  during 
the  year  1870  $203.34  J  he  intends  to  return  to  India 


WAGES.  253 

next  year,  having-  saved  several  hundred  dollars 
during  the  five  years  he  has  been  here.  He  said  that 
he  was  never  sick,  and  that  he  seldom  missed  a  day's 
work  in  the  year,  Sundays  excepted.  He  was  a  well- 
made  muscular  fellow,  much  above  the  average  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  here,  and  said  that  he  had  been 
an  agricultural  labourer  in  India.  JMr.  Gray,  the 
manager,  gives  the  following  account  of  him  :  'He 
is  a  man  of  very  good  character,  and  most  industrious. 
He  is  seldom  absent  from  work.  I  have  never  had 
occasion  to  bring  him  up  before  the  magistrate.' 
This  is,  however,  a  very  exceptional  case,  and  is  the 
only  instance  we  have  met  with  where  a  labourer  had 
earned  so  much  simply  by  estate  work.  JMoholly, 
an  immigrant  on  the  Adelphi  Estate,  who  had  been 
here  before,  had  gone  back  to  India,  and  returned 
again  to  this  colony,  was  another  example  of  what 
first-rate  men  can  earn.  During  the  year  ending 
30th  June,  1870,  he  had  earned  §155.70  by  work  in 
the  field  and  buildings,  and  owned  several  cattle." 


254 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

AIDS  AND  REMEDIES   ON  THE   COOLIES'   BEHALF. 

OF  the  remedies  enforceable  against  employers  by 
the  Executive  or  the  Immigration  Office  for 
infractions  of  contract  under  the  Immigration  Ordi- 
nances, we  have  already  seen  that  the  Governor, 
Mr.  Hincks,  saw  fit  to  take  these  out  of  the  hands  of 
that  official  altogether.  Hence  the  Governor,  while 
practically  degrading  the  Protector  of  Immigrants, 
and  assuming  to  himself  administrative  functions, 
diminished  also  to  a  great  extent  his  own  authority. 
He  was  no  longer  the  dens  ex  machindy  only  to  be 
produced  on  great  occasions,  but  he  was  the  imme- 
diate dealer  with  recalcitrant  planters.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  could,  were  he  so  disposed  (it  is  of  no  con- 
sequence whether  he  did  so  or  not),  play  off  his 
powers  according  as  this  or  that  personal  end  was  to 
be  served.  Instead  of  an  administration  of  the  law, 
conducted  by  the  proper  officials,  and  subjected  to  the 
rigid  scrutiny  of  the  judges,  the  administration  of 
immigration  was  a  loose  and  irresponsible  and  irre- 
gular circle  of  threats,  correspondences,  and  compro- 
mises. Of  this  the  Colonial  Office  had  notice  from 
Mr.  Crosby  in  the  course  of  the  correspondence 
arising  out  of  the  Governor's  complaint  against  him. 
They  censured  Mr.  Crosby  for  the  manner  of  his 
opposition,  but  not   apparently  for  the  matter.     Yet 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES,  255 

they  did  not  insist  on  a  change.  Nothing  could  more 
clearly  show  to  the  English  public  how  necessary  it 
is  that  constant  vigilance  and  active  criticism  should 
be  brought  to  bear  on  our  Colonial  administration  It 
ought  to  have  occurred  to  any  Colonial  Secretary  that 
in  permitting  this  dangerous  usurpation  of  power  by  a 
petty  Governor,  they  were  sowing  seeds  of  discord  in 
the  community  and  of  injustice  to  the  Coolies,  whose 
protection  they  admit  to  be  part  of  their  duty.  There 
was,  then,  a  practical  repeal  of  such  enactments  as 
enabled  the  Immigration  Agent-General  to  initiate 
any  proceedings  under  the  very  large  powers  of  sec- 
tions 97  and  99  of  the  Ordinance  4  of  1864. 

By  section  98  the  Governor,  if  it  were  established 
before  a  magistrate  on  any  complaint  preferred  by  an 
immigrant,  or  by  the  Ivimigratmi  Agent-Gaicral,  that 
the  immigrant  was  not  provided   by  his   employer 
with   sufficient  work   to   enable  him  to  earn  a  just 
amount  of  wages  in  terms  of  his  contract,  on  a  report 
by  the  magistrate  to  the  Governor,  might  cancel  his 
indenture,  and  transfer  him  to  another  estate.     The 
difficulty,  however,  of  establishing  such  a  case,  even 
were  it  not  a  rare  one  in  so  busy  a  colony,  renders 
this  section  of  secondary  importance.     Another  sec- 
tion, which  overlaps  section  99,  gives  great  power  to 
the  Governor.     "  If  it  shall  at  any  time  appear  to  the 
Governor,  on  fust  cause  sJunmi  to  /its  satisfaction  (r),  that 
all  or  any  of  the  immigrants  indentured  on  any  planta- 
tion should  be  removed  therefrom,  it  shall  be  lawful 
for  the  Governor  to  order  "  them  to  be  released  and 
discharged  from  that  employer.     This  power,  which 
the  Governor  holds  in  tcrrorem,  is  exercised  in  special 
instances,  particularly  when  men  who  have  threat- 
ened women  have  to  be  removed ;  but  it  is  evidently 
one  of  so  delicate  a  character  and  inflicting   so  great 
a  punishment  that  it  ought  only  to  be  exercised  in 
extreme  cases.     The  planters  themselves  should  be 


256  THE  COOLIE, 

foremost  in  objecting  to  the  exercise  of  this  private 
and  irresponsible  power  wherever  the  open  judgment 
of  a  court  of  law  is  available  for  the  purpose  in  view. 
In  the  celebrated  Enterprise  case,  where  several 
Coolies  were  alleged  to  have  been  improperly  con- 
lined,  Acting-Governor  Mundy  attempted  to  compel 
the  proprietors  or  attorneys  to  dismiss  the  manager. 
This  they  refused  to  do.  It  was  an  admirable  oppor- 
tunity for  him  to  exercise  his  powers  under  this 
section,  and  to  show  the  firmness  of  the  Executive, 
by  w^ithdrawing  all  the  immigrants  from  the  planta- 
tion ;  but  he  did. not  do  it.  He  may- have  received 
notice,  as  was  suggested  on  good  authority,  that  they 
would  not  be  received  elsewhere.  The  power  is  so 
great  that  most  men  would  naturally  shrink  from 
applying  it,  and  a  mitigated  power  might  practically 
be  more  powerful — to  use  a  paradox. 

The  "  suitable  and  sufficient  dwelling-house  ac- 
commodation "  was  one  of  the  matters  by  the  Ordi- 
nance 4  of  1864,  sec.  152,  committed  to  the  supervision 
of  the  ^Medical  Inspector  of  Hospitals,  who  "was  to 
report  upon  the  state  and  condition  of  the  houses,  and 
the  state  and  condition  of  the  yard  and  grounds  about 
the  same."  Section  129  had  enjoined  upon  the  manager 
the  obligation  of  taking  care  that  the  yard  and 
grounds  for  the  space  of  fifty  feet  (when  practicable) 
round  about  the  dwelling-houses  were  well  drained, 
and  the  drains  clean  and  in  good  order,  &c.,  the 
extreme  penalty  being  $24.  Certain  police-ofiicers, 
called  commissaries  of  taxation,  also  had  the  duty 
cast  upon  them  of  entering  the  plantation  once  in 
three  months,  inspecting  the  yards  and  grounds,  and, 
after  notice  and  failure  to  comply  with  it,  of  laying 
an  information  against  the  employer.  These  pro- 
visions were  so  elaborate  that  no  one  seems  to  have 
mastered  them.  The  Medical  Inspector  of  Hospitals 
•'  never  considered  it  his  duty  to  do  more  than  report 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  257 

on  the  state  of  repair  of  the  dwelling's;  the  Immipfra- 
tion  Agents  considered  their  primary  responsibility 
on  all  matters  connected  with  the  dwellings  to  be  at 
an  end ; "  while  the  commissaries  exercised  a  discretion 
not  accorded  to  them  by  the  ordinance,  and  avoided 
raising  unpleasant  issues.  "In  April,  1870,  the 
Executive  promulgated  a  rule  that  no  new  immigrants 
should  be  allotted  until  Dr.  Shier  had  reported  that 
there  was  house  room  for  them  on  the  estate ;  but 
there  is  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  the  very  strict- 
ness with  which  this  wholesome  rule  has  been  carried 
out,  has,  in  the  absence  of  proper  arrangements, 
tended  rather  to  the  disadvantage,  both  in  quality  and 
quantity,  of  the  accommodation  of  the  old  immigrjints. 
Of  all  the  excellent  dwellings  which  we  saw  in  the 
process  of  building  upon  the  estates,  by  far  the  greater 
part  were  intended  for  new  immigrants ;  whereas 
frequently  we  should  have  preferred  to  learn  that  their 
destination  was  to  replace  the  very  ruinous  lodgings 
occupied  by  the  old  immigrants." 

In  reviewing  the  persons  by  whom  the  rights  of  the 
Coolie  are  to  be  preserved,  the  magistrates  necessarily 
occupy  a  prominent  position.  They  are  scattered  over 
the  colony,  hence  are  more  conveniently  approached 
than  the  solitary  Immigration  Office,  and  indeed  are 
now  often  applied  to  in  matters  not  strictly  judicial. 
In  the  enormous  number  of  cases  arising  under  the 
Immigration  Ordinance,  unless  they  exercise  unusual 
keenness,  industry,  and  watchfulness,  they  must 
inevitably  do  a  considerable  amount  of  injustice. 
Nothing,  for  instance,  could  be  more  demoralising  to 
a  magistrate's  district  than  that  he  should  be  known 
to  be  an  easy-going  justice,  accepting  evidcMice  with- 
out troublesome  inquisitiveness,  availing  himst-lt  of 
the  too  extraordinary  facilities  for  evidence-making' 
afforded  by  the  Immigration  Laws.  "Asking  no 
questions  for  conscience  sake"  would  be  the  motto 

S 


«58  THE  COOLIE. 

of  such  a  justiciary.  He  would  be  beloved  of  pro- 
secutors—detested of  defendants.  Are  there  any  such 
in  British  Guiana  r 

]\lr.  Des  Voeux,  himself  formerly  a  mag^istrate,  dis- 
tinctly brought  against  his  late  brother  magistrates 
the  charge  of  undue  subserviency  to  the  planters, 
and  it  was  a  necessary  subject  of  investigation.  The 
Commissioners  in  their  Report  are  inclined  to  attri- 
bute the  principal  evils  of  the  administration  of  justice 
rather  to  the  legislation  than  to  the  justices ;  but 
they  seem  not  to  have  drawn  from  the  facts  stated 
by  themselves  the  deductions  warranted  by  them. 
The  amount  of  space  afforded  to  the  hospitals  in  the 
Report  seems  disproportionate  to  their  importance  in 
the  system.  The  management  of  these  places  is  a 
matter  of  grave  moment ;  it  respects  the  Coolie  in 
his  lowest  estate;  it  undoubtedly  may  exhibit  criminal 
abuses  ;  but,  in  looking  at  the  immigration  system, 
those  abuses  constitute  a  subordinate  part  of  it; 
their  management  can,  by  stricter  supervision  and 
reorganised  machinery,  be  made  nearly  perfect.  But 
how  are  we  to  change  a  society?  How  to  secure  a 
just  administration  of  law  ?  How  to  insure  to  the 
Coolie,  well  or  ill,  a  safe  resort  in  cases  of  wrong, 
oppression,  and  fraud  ?  This  seems  to  me  of  infinite 
consequence.  It  concerns  not  only  his  physical 
health,  but  his  welfare,  his  morality,  his  happiness. 
Therefore  I  should  wish  to  have  seen  in  the  Report 
some  larger  attention  paid  to  the  great  question  of 
the  magistracy  of  the  colony.  The  difficulty  in  criti- 
cising such  a  body  of  men  is  that  the  innocent  and 
high-minded  necessarily  get  mixed  up  with  the  guilty. 
And  there  are  men  of  high  character  among  Deme- 
rara  magistrates.  In  reading  my  obsen^ations  on  the 
magistracy,  therefore,  the  reader  should  understand 
that  though  general  in  language,  it  is  not  intended 
to  be  general  in  its  incidence ;  and  of  the  magistrates 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  259 

themselves  no  one  will  be  offended  who  does  not  feel 
himself  to  be  worthy  of  reproach. 

When  testing"  a  charge  of  subserviency  and  parti- 
ality against  the  body  of  magistrates  in  British  Guiana, 
we  must  advert  to  the  fact  that  they  are  placed  in 
a  peculiar  relation  to  a  subordinate  class  of  another 
race,  with  a  special  responsibility  arising  out  of  that 
relation.  An  English  magistrate,  surrounded  by 
constant  witnesses  of  his  proceedings,  criticised  by 
newspapers,  watched  by  lawyers,  will  be  necessarily 
careful  to  preserve  an  even  balance  in  his  adjudica- 
tions, and  is  not  likely  to  commit  errors  of  set  pur- 
pose. But  if  a  judge,  sitting  in  a  court  sequestered 
from  public  observation,  dealing  with  ignorant  and 
puzzled  natives  of  another  race  and  language,  in  the 
presence  only  of  spectators  strongly  interested  against 
them,  suffers  himself,  not  once  or  twice  or  in  one  set 
of  particulars,  to  be  loose  in  administering  the  law,  or 
to  be  one-sided  in  his  leanings,  there  is  no  possible 
conclusion  but  one. 

Mr.  Des  Voeux  alleged  a  "custom" — one  of  the 
many  unhappy  generalisations  from  very  few  par- 
ticulars used  by  him  in  the  course  of  his  long  indict- 
ment— of  winking  at  illegal  summary  arrests,  made 
by  order  of  managers,  who  are  often  justices  of  the 
peace,  on  charges  for  breaches  of  contract  under  the 
Immigration  Laws,  which  clearly  did  not  authorise 
the  proceeding.  Thus  it  was  suggested  a  man  was, 
as  a  punishment,  locked  up  on  some  slight  pretence, 
who  it  was  known  would  be  discharged  by  the  magis- 
trate at  the  next  court.  Mr.  Des  Voeux  said  that 
on  becoming  magistrate  of  his  district  ho  found 
persons  in  custody  on  such  charges,  and  dismissed 
them  ;  that  cases  again  came  before  him  where 
planters  continued  the  "practice;"  and  that  his 
action  thereupon  brought  him  into  odium.  The 
Commissioners  were  unable  to  follow  Mr.  Des  Vcuux 


26o  THE  COOLIE. 

to  the  extent  of  his  inferences.  Nor  was  he  himself 
able  to  produce  evidence  that  covered  his  statements. 
But  the  Commissioners  report  as  follows  :* — 

"  Two  other  cases  are  those  of  arrests  for  desertions. 
The  charges  in  these  cases  were  produced  in  court 
by  Mr.  Inspector-General  Cox  ;  upon  them  there 
was  an  endorsement  in  ]\Ir.  Des  Voeux's  handwriting, 
'  Discharged  as  being  in  illegal  custody.'  It  appears 
that  the  only  offence  against  the  Immigration  Labour 
Law,  for  which  the  arrest  of  an  immigrant  without 
warrant  is  authorised,  is  the  being  absent,  without 
a  pass,  more  than  two  miles  from  his  estate.  Such  a 
person  is  commonly  called  a  deserter ;  but  the  legal 
definition  of  a  deserter  does  not  exactly  coincide  with 
that  of  an  indentured  immigrant  liable  to  arrest  with- 
out warrant.  The  deserter  is  a  labourer  subject  to 
indenture,  who  has  been  absent  seven  consecutive 
days  from  the  muster-roll  and  from  work.  If, 
therefore,  the  charge  were  laid  as  '  desertion,'  and 
there  was  no  warrant  for  the  arrest,  the  imprison- 
ment would  be  informal,  and  the  prisoner  ought  to 
be  discharged.  It  seems,  moreover,  that  there  has 
been  considerable  laxity  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
words,  '  found  at  a  distance  greater  than  two  miles 
from  the  estate.'  When  a  deserter  is  found  he  is 
taken  back  to  his  estate  in  charge  of  the  police  ;  and 
it  has  often  occurred  that  a  manager,  wishing  to 
charge  with  the  offence,  has  at  once  given  him  in 
charge  to  the  same  policeman,  and  had  him  locked 
up,  without  waiting  for  a  warrant.  Thus,  during  this 
same  year  1867,  three  immigrants,  sent  back  to  their 
estate  from  Georgetown,  after  a  detention  in  custody 
of  unusual  length,  which  was  due  to  the  police  miss- 
ing the  steamer,  were  taken  to  Tiger  Island,  and 
upon  their  arrival  at  Plantation  Hamburg  were 
immediately  given  into  custody  by  the  manager  for 

•  Report,  &c.,  H  19. 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  261 

desertion,  and  re-transferred  to  the  lock-up  at  Suddie. 
They  were  dismissed  soon  after  upon  the  remon- 
strances of  ]\Ir.  Firth,  Sub-Agent  of  Immigration, 
who  happened  to  be  on  the  spot ;  and  on  his  report 
an  investigation  took  place.  It  appears  that  they 
had,  in  fact,  come  to  town  to  lay  a  complaint  before 
the  Immigration  Office — an  act  which  at  the  present 
time  would  not  be  a  desertion,  and  certainly  ought 
never  to  have  been  so  held.  A  final  minute  was 
made  on  the  papers  by  Lieut.-Governor  Mundy  to 
the  following  effect : — 

"  '  The  Inspector-General  to  give  particular  instruc- 
'tions  to  the  police  not  to  detain  persons  in  the  lock- 
ups without  a  magistrate's  w^arrant.  These  men 
ought  at  once  to  have  been  forwarded  to  Hamburg, 
and  proceeded  against  by  manager  by  complaint  and 
.summons'  (R.  M.  M.,  July  5th). 

*'  For  another  instance  of  the  same  irregularity  we 
beg  to  refer  to  Mr.  Des  Vceux's  letter  and  evidence, 
and  also  to  Mr.  Trotman's  evidence,  for  an  account  of 
the  same  case,  in  no  material  respect  differing  from 
this,  as  it  appeared  to  the  other  principal  actors  in 
the  matter.  Such  arrests  have  undoubtedly  in  former 
days  been  common,  and  in  some  districts  are  so  still. 
Mr.  Huggins  tells  us  that  if  it  came  out  in  evidence 
that  a  deserter  had  been  illegally  arrested  in  the 
manner  above  described,  he  should  consider  it  his 
duty  to  discharge  him  ;  but  that  he  has  never  pressed 
the  point  in  the  case  of  a  desertion  so  far  as  to  inquire 
where  the  party  had  been  arrested.  Mr.  Ware  in  his 
evidence  seems  rather  doubtful  whether  the  arrest 
under  such  circumstances  is  not,  after  all,  legal ;  but 
concludes  that  it  is  not." 

Whether  these  illegal  arrests  were  or  were  not 
common  throughout  the  colony  at  the  time — as  the 
Commissioners  think  they  were  not — the  following 
order  of  the  Inspector-General  of  Police,  issued   on 


262  THE  COOLIE. 

January  i6th,  1 863,  stands  as  an  evidence  that  the  Exe- 
cutive looked  upon  the  matter  with  some  anxiety  : — 

"  Representations  having  been  made  to  me  that 
some  of  the  officers  of  the  police  in  charge  of  stations 
are  in  the  habit  of  receiving,  and  conhning  as  pri- 
soners, persons  charged  with  neglect  of  duty,  refusing 
to  w^ork,  being  disorderly,  and  with  committing  ordi- 
nary assaults,  petty  breaches  of  the  peace,  and  such- 
like offences,  orders  are  now  given  that  in  future  per- 
sons charged  with  the  two  first-mentioned  offences 
are  not  to  be  received  on  any  terms  whatever,"  &:c. 

If  that  order  states  the  truth,  and  it  must  have 
originated  in  some  singular  condition  of  the  police 
administration  to  attract  so  decided  a  ukase,  the  ma- 
gistrates, who  would  be  the  first  to  be  brought  face  to 
lace  with  the  illegality,  cannot  exonerate  themselves 
from  blame,  since  they  were  bound  immediately  to 
discountenance  it,  not  only  by  discharging  the  pri- 
soners, but  by  distinctly  warning  the  offenders  that 
they  were  laying*  themselves  open  to  actions  for  false 
imprisonment. 

The  Commissioners  remark,  by  the  way,  "  that  in 
the  present  state  of  the  law,  to  have  an  indentured 
immigrant  (at  all  events;  arrested  on  a  trumped-up 
charge  either  of  theft  or  trespass,  would  be  a  most 
unnecessary  piece  of  chicaner}'.  There  is  quite  sufficient 
facility  afforded — too  much  indeed^for  getting  a  coriviction 
against  any  man  whojn  a  ma?2ager  is  at  all  likely  to  xvish 
to  punish^  by  nieans  of  a  direct  charge  under  the  Labour 
Laxv." 

Let  us  take  another  instance.  It  may  be  convenient, 
but  it  is  illegal  and  unjust,  to  try  a  number  of  persons 
in  a  batch  for  offences  that  could  not  be,  or  were  not, 
jointly  committed.  It  w^ould  lift  off  the  wig  of  an 
English  judge  with  astonishment  were  he  to  hear  of 
such  a  proceeding.  How  do  the  Commissioners  report 
upon  this  ?     "  For  the  practice  in  Mr.  Ware's  court, 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  263 

^Ir.  Ye  wens,  who  was  clerk  there  before  and  during 
Mr.  Des  Voeux's  time,  bears  testimony  that  it  in  no 
way  differed  from  ]\Ir.  Des  Voeux's,  but  in  some  other 
districts  his  experience  was  different ;  and  circum- 
stances have  accidentally  come  before  us  which  show 
us  that  a  good  deal  of  laxity  has  prevailed.  For 
instance,  one  such  charge  was  actually  submitted  to 
us  by  Mr.  "Ware,  which  had  been  taken  in  his  district, 
although  not  by  him.  Another  was  heard  by  Mr. 
Dampier,  magistrate  in  the  West, Coast  district  of 
Demerara,  on  the  22nd  of  June,  1870 — a  charge 
informal  in  one  respect,  although  a  conviction  was 
obtained.  Besides  the  joint  charge  for  an  offence  not 
joint,  it  specifies  a  task  allotted  to  two,  a  thing  not 
recognised  by  law,  and  allotted  moreover  on  two 
days.  Whereas  the  legal  task  is  only  one  day's  work, 
and  it  is  signed  by  an  overseer  'on  behalf  of  the 
deputy-manager,  instead  of,  as  it  should  have  been, 
by  the  deputy-manager,  or  whoever  was  the  com- 
plainant, himself.  Although  this  case  became  the 
subject  of  correspondence,  and  the  papers  came  under 
the  cognizance  of  the  authorities,  these  irregularities 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  noticed.  We  have  also 
found  another  instance,  a  case  heard  by  Mr.  Bury, 
which  also  became  the  subject  of  investigation  and 
comment,  though  not  on  this  ground,  and  we  have  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  there  are  others,  the  motive 
apparently  being,  as  Mr.  Des  Vceux  says,  that  they 
may  be  disposed  of  more  quickly."* 

On  this  the  Commissioners  make  no  comment,  and  it 
needs  none  :  but  they  might  have  drawn  a  conclusion. 

Another  instance  arose  out  of  a  practice  of  the 
employers  to  force  open  the  doors  of  immigrants' 
houses  and  turn  them  out  to  work.  It  is  a  very  nice 
question  whether  the  manager  has  not  as  much  right 
to  enter  a  Coolie  house  as  a  master  has  to  enter  his 

*  Report,  &c.,  H  23. 


264  •        THE  COOLIE. 

servant's  room  ;  but  it  was  considered  illegal  by  some 
of  the  magistrates. 

*'  Upon  this  head  J\lr.  Ware  himself  confirms  the 
fact  that  such  a  practice  was  common,  since  he  found 
it  in  existence  after  he  resumed  charge  of  the  district. 
He  then  set  his  face  against  it,  and  in  two  instances 
imposed  a  penalty.  We  noticed  that  ]\Ir.  Des  Voeux 
himself  never  found  an  immigrant  willing  to  bring  a 
complaint  on  this  score  ;  and  his  accusation  of  the 
other  magistrates  is,  under  the  circumstances,  a  little 
out  of  place.     It  is  as  follows  : — 

"  *  I  frequently  suggested  to  the  immigrants,  on  their 
complaints  respecting  such  acts,  that  they  should 
bring  criminal  charges  against  their  aggressors  ;  but 
although  their  fears  invariably  prevented  their  adop- 
tion of  this  course,  I  believe  that  the  mere  hint  had 
the  effect  of  checking  a  practice  which  I  was  given  to 
understand  had  never  before  met  with  reproof  from 
the  Bench.' 

"  Mr.  Yewens  says  that  he  is  well  aware  of  the  prac- 
tice, and  of  it  always  having  been. considered  illegal 
by  the  magistrates.  As  to  the  practice  of  '  turning 
out,'  in  popular  parlance,  we  observe  that  it  is  in  fact 
the  regular  morning  duty  of  the  overseers,  or  drivers, 
who  are  bound  to  see  the  people  out  at  work,  a  task 
which  requires  great  tact  and  temper  in  the  perform- 
ance, and  for  which  it  is  hard  to  lay  down  a  line 
where  the  transgression  of  the  law  begins  and  justi- 
fiable energy  ceases.  A  mere  fault  of  manner  will 
soon  convert  what  is  probably  looked  upon  merely  as 
a  part  of  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  getting  out  of 
bed  into  forcible  entry  and  intrusion,  and  a  violation 
of  the  principle  that  every  immigrant's  hut  is  his 
castle.  It  is  very  likely  that  the  sanctity  of  the  latch 
is  not  sufficiently  regarded  in  Guiana ;  but  if  the 
people  are  aware  of  their  rights,  and  in  a  position  to 
enforce  them,  there  is  not  much  risk  of  abuse." 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  265 

It  seems  to  me  open  to  very  severe  observation, 
that  other  of  the  magistrates  throughout  the  colony, 
believing  the  practice  in  question  to  be  illegal,  should 
not  have  animadverted  upon  it  with  severity,  and 
advised  the  Coolies  of  their  rights.  The  poor  people 
have  no  other  adviser.  We  have  seen  that  a  magis- 
trate can  advise  a  planter.  A  common  practice 
coming  to  the  magistrates'  knowledge  and  permitted 
to  continue  unchecked,  even  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Commission,  can  scarcely  be  passed  by  with  a  simple 
regret,  especially  if  it  be  taken  along  with  a  number 
of  other  not  easily  explainable  circumstances. 

In  the  case  of  that  proviso  of  section  12  of  Ordi- 
nance 9  of  1868,  before  alluded  to,  the  conduct  of  the 
magistracy  is  yet  more  indefensible.  It  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  the  unskilled  immigrants  will  rake  up  a 
proviso,  to  use  an  expression  of  the  Commissioners, 
"stuck  into"  the  end  of  a  long  section.  The  proviso 
embodies  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  Coolie  rights — 
that  of  laying  his  complaint,  if  he  has  a  reasonable 
one,  before  the  Immigration  Agent- General.  Can 
we  regard  any  magistrate  refusing — as  we  found  one 
doing — the  right  altogether,  and  a  whole  body  of 
magistrates  neither  suggesting  it  to  the  Coolie  nor 
recognising  it,  without  suspicion  ?  Even  Mr.  Hincks, 
whose  errors  were  not  undue  partiality  for  the  immi- 
grants, in  one  of  his  minutes  (4th  Feb.,  1865)  said: 
"  With  regard  to  the  magistrates,  I  have  to  observe 
that  I  feel  persuaded  from  my  knowledge  of  what  has 
been  directed  in  other  colonies,  that  the  Secretary  of 
State  looks  on  the  stipendiary  magistrates  as  in  a 
great  degree  the  protectors  of  immigrants.  There  is 
no  colony,  I  am  persuaded,  where  the  magistrates 
have  so  carefully  abstained  from  putting  themselves 
in  the  position  of  prosecutors  as  in  this.  But  a 
magistrate  is  not  to  shut  his  eyes  to  gross  abuses  !  " 

The  position  is  correct.     If  the  Secretary  of  State 


a66  THE  COOLIE. 

cannot  show  us  a  body  of  independent  men  on  the 
magisterial,  bench,  one  of  its  mainstays  in  defending 
the  Coolie  system  is  gone.  This  relation  of  the  magis- 
trate to  the  immigrants — certainly  a  peculiar  one  for  an 
administrator  of  justice  under  English  forms — throws 
on  him  a  weighty  responsibility,  and  necessitates  his 
'  doing  far  more  than  merely  to  hear  and  discriminate 
.  upon  a  one-sided  story.  He  is  to  ascertain  whether 
under  any  provision  of  the  acts  any  point  can  be 
taken  in  favour  of  the  man  who,  with  every  disad- 
vantage, stands  before  him. 

The  Report  of  the  Commissioners  on  the  charge  of 
undue  severity  of  sentences  I  transcribe  verbatim  :* — 
"The  last  and  gravest  charge  against  the  stipen- 
diary magistrates  is  that  of  undue  rigour  in  inflicting 
punishment  on  immigrants,  defendants  in  labour 
cases.  Mr.  Des  Voeux  has  supplied  us  with  figures, 
by  which  it  appears  that  the  average  of  his  fines  was 
lower  than  that  of  other  magistrates ;  and  from 
further  experience  of  the  wages  earned  in  the  colony, 
he  considers  that  his  own  mark  was  too  high  rather 
than  too  low.  J\Ir.  Huggins,  while  magistrate  in  the 
West  Coast  district,  was  found  fault  with  on  account 
of  the  lowness  of  his  fines.  i\Ir.  Des  Voeux's  average 
for  a  month,  taken  at  random,  he  gives  at  82.50  for 
offences  against  the  Labour  Law ;  for  a  month  of  Mr. 
Ware's  he  gives  an  average  at  $3.25  ;  and  for  one 
each  of  Mr.  Dampier  and  Mr.  Cox  $5  each.  Mr. 
Dampier's  average  for  a  recent  month,  however,  is 
given  at  84.  These  figures  we  have  not  verified,  but 
think  them  not  improbable.  It  is  to  be  observed  that 
IMr.  Des  Voeux  more  seldom  gave  the  option  of  a 
fine  than  other  magistrates,  especially  in  cases  of 
desertion,  so  that  the  average  of  his  fines  as  compared 
with  theirs  is  not  the  exact  measure  of  his  lenity. 
We  regret  to  say  that  we  are  bound  to  consider  this 

•  Report,  &c.,  f  30. 


I 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  267 

complaint  as  being  to  a  great  extent  well  founded. 
The  subject  is  so  important  that  we  prefer  to  discuss 
it  hereafter,  apart  from  personal  considerations.  In 
the  meantime,  we  acknowledge  that  Mr.  Des  Voeux 
has  done  good  ser\dce  in  drawing  public  attention  to 
the  circumstances.  As  a  matter  of  opinion,  we  agree 
with  him  that  the  magistrates'  sentences  are  too 
severe.  We  do  not,  however,  on  this  ground,  subscribe 
to  his  charges  of  partiality  and  subservience  against 
his  late  colleagues." 

The  average  of  sentences  of  imprisonments  without 
a  fine  in  the  county  of  Demerara  Avas  28-8  days.  For 
over  3,000  convictions  the  average  for  men  is  39  days, 
for  women  25-7  days.  The  average  of  imprisonments 
in  default  of  payment  of  a  fine  is — men,  23*4,  women, 
20.  Of  imprisonment  in  default  of  payment  of  fine 
there  were  5,218  against  3,078  without  that  option. 
The  fines  imposed  as  an  alternative,  which  the  immi- 
grants could  not  pay,  averaged  for  males  $6.47,  and 
temales  S7.71.  The  whole  number  of  convictions  in 
the  county  during  five  years  was  10,555.  The  Com- 
missioners conclude  that  //le  number  ivho  go  to  gaol  is 
ever  eighty  per  cent.^  and  the  number  who  pay  fines  U7ider 
tzi'e7ity  per  ce?7t.,  of  the  total  7i2i?nber  co?ivieted.  This 
would  seem  to  some  extent  to  modify  the  statements 
advanced  by  Air.  Oliver  of  the  generally  wealthy 
condition  of  the  immigrants.  The  average  over  the 
whole  colony  appears  to  be  $5  fine  and  twenty  days* 
imprisonment. 

The  reader  who  has  read  the  evidence  about  wages, 
and  who  considers  that  only  about  forty  per  cent. 
<f  those  working  in  a  given  week  earned  five  shillings 
i.e.,  8d.  over  one  dollar),  and  upward,  may  judge  ot 
the  severity  of  fines,  the  average  of  which  is  ifrom 
§6.50  to  $5  !  They  may  also  form  their  own  opinion 
of  the  mild  deprecation  the  Commissioners  use.  If 
half  the  severity  expended  on  the  luckless  Dr.  Shier 


268  THE  COOLIE. 

had  been  assigned  to  this  branch  of  the  question, 
the  value  of  the  Report  would  have  been  materially- 
enhanced.  For  the  working  key  of  the  Coolie  system 
is  the  magistrate's  court.  It  must  be  admitted,  how- 
ever, in  mitigation  of  too  harsh  a  judgment,  that  many 
of  the  apparent  imbecilities  of  magisterial  adminis- 
tration in  Demerara  are  due  to  the  imbecility  of  the 
enactments  ;  hence  these  require  the  earliest  attacks 
of  reformers. 

Not  alone  do  the  Coolies  mistrust  some  of  tiie 
magistrates.  The  Portuguese  and  Creoles  are  equally 
unconfiding.  One  story  told  me,  which  was,  I  under- 
stood, a  current  joke  in  the  colony,  concerned  a  worthy- 
stipendiary,  who,  like  brother  stipendiaries  elsewhere, 
sometimes  fell  into  debt.  A  Portuguese  creditor,  after 
many  vain  applications,  took  out  a  summons  against 
him  in  the  Petty  Debt  Court,  and  the  case  came  on  to 
be  tried  before  the  delinquent  himself.  When  it  was 
called  on — let  us  name  it  "  Carvalho  v.  Smith " — 
Smith  the  magistrate,  qua  magistrate,  called  for  the 
defendant,  and  qua  Smith  responded,  "  Here  !" 

Smith  (magistrate,  loquitur). — Well,  Mr.  Carvalho, 
what  have  you  to  say  against  the  defendant  r 

Carvalho. — Why,  sir,  you  know  perfectly  well 
you  owe  me  the  money,  and  have  a  long  time  since. 
I  sold  you,  &c.  &c.,  and  I  lent  you,  &c.  &c.,  and  I 
served  the  account  on  you,  and  you  admitted  it. 

Smith  (magistrate). — Well,  defendant,  what  have 
you  to  say  for  yourself  ? 

Putting  his  hand  to  his  mouth — 

Smith  (as  defendant). — Well,  sir,  I  admit  the  debt, 
but  I  can't  pay  it  just  now.  I  am  willing  to  pay  it  if 
I  get  time. 

Smith  (magistrate  to  plaintiff). — You  hear  what  the 
defendant  says  ;  what  objection  have  you  to  give  him 
time  ? 

Carvalho. — No,  sir !  I  will  not  give  you  any  time. 


1 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  269 

I  have   already  been  kept  out  of  my  money  these 
many  months.     I  will 

Smith  (magistrate  1. — Oh  !  you  must  give  him  time. 
Judgment  for  plaintiff:  defendant  to  have  six  months 
to  pay  the  money.     Call  the  next  case  ! 

The  holding,  in  a  proper  and  trustworthy  manner,  of 
inquests  on  immigrants  dying  under  any  extraordi- 
nary circumstances,  is  obviously  a  matter  of  necessity. 
If  conducted  by  persons  in  whom  they  have  con- 
fidence, it  allays  the  too  quick  suspicions  of  foul  play 
which  a  nervous  and  ignorant  people  are  always 
ready  to  entertain.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are 
rendered  imperative  by  the  seclusion  of  estates,  the 
opportunities  for  murder,  assault,  or  poisoning,  the 
general  maintenance  of  executive  discipline  over  both 
employers  and  Coolies.  The  situation  of  the  estates 
inDemerara  gives  rise  to  natural  difficulties  in  obtain- 
ing trustworthy  inquisitions.  One-third  of  the  justices 
of  the  peace  are  resident  managers  of  estates.  They 
have  the  power  of  holding  inquests.  The  jury  con- 
sists generally  of  three  persons.  In  many  cases 
the  jury  is  chosen  from  the  employes  of  the  estate  on 
which  the  decease  occurred.  The  coroner  is  the 
neighbouring  manager.  Mr.  Des  Voeux  discovered 
one  case  in  which  Mr.  Menzies,  the  manager  of 
Zeelugt,  had  held  an  inquest  on  a  Chinese  indentured 
on  his  own  estate.* 

"  It  may  be  said,  therefore,  without  imputing 
personal  misconduct  to  the  administrators  of  the 
system,  that  in  those  doubtful  cases  of  death  under 
circumstances  of  suspicion  which  will  sometimes 
occur,  as,  for  instance,  where  an  immigrant  puts  an 
end  to  his  life  in  a  fit  of  misery  or  despondency,  or 
where  accidents  happen  in  the  buildings  among  the 
machinery,  or  where  loss  of  life  is  due  to  the  bad 
state  of  repair  in  which  are  many  of  the  struc- 
•  Report,  &c.,  H  287—292. 


^^o  THE  COOLIE, 

tures  upon  estates,  the  colony  has  not  sufficient 
security  that  the  facts  should  be  thoroughly  and 
impartially  investigated.  Two  or  three  instances 
which  were  brought  under  our  notice  in  consequence 
of  complaints  by  immigrants,  impressed  us  strongly 
with  this  fact.  We  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  to 
say  that  in  any  of  these  cases  we  had  reason  to  doubt 
the  accidental  nature  of  the  circumstances  which 
caused  death  ;  but  it  was  plain  that  in  the  minds  of 
the  immigrants  the  investigation  bore  no  satisfying 
character,  a  thing  the  less  to  be  wondered  at  by  our- 
selves after  spending  the  time  and  pains  necessary 
before  we  could  assure  ourselves  that  there  was  no 
ground  for  suspicion  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
hasty  and  inadequate  inquiry. 

"  Mr.  Sheriff  Fraser  tells  us  that  it  is  his  habit  to 
reserve  all  important  inquests  to  himself — that  is  to 
say,  he  lets  the  justices  of  the  peace  know  that  he 
will  always  be  ready  to  undertake  them,  and  that  all 
they  will  be  called  upon  to  do  is  in  cases  of  emergency 
to  swear  in  a  jury,  and  take  the  medical  evidence. 
That  this  rule,  which  there  is  no  direct  authority  to 
enforce,  is  still  not  quite  sufficient,  we  have  a  pain- 
ful proof  in  the  circumstances  of  an  inquest  held  at 
Goldstone  Hall  on  the  6th  day  of  December,  i86g. 
The  Coolies  on  this  estate  made  a  complaint  that 
seven  men  had  been  pushed  out  of  a  two-story 
window  in  the  overseer's  house  where  they  had  gone 
to  receive  their  pay.  One  was  killed  by  the  fall,  one 
was  since  dead,  and  another  a  cripple.  The  loose- 
ness with  which  the  evidence  was  taken,  and  some 
other  unsatisfactory  circumstances  in  the  version  of 
the  story  given  to  the  Commissioners  on  the  part  of 
the  estate's  authorities,  will  be  apparent  from  the 
notes  of  visit  (Goldstone  Hall),  and  from  the  report 
of  the  inquest  printed  in  our  Appendix. 

"Another  case  on  Plantation  Aurora,  into  which 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES.  27: 

we  found  it  necessary  to  inquire,  did  not  appear  to 
have  been  the  subject  of  an  inquest  at  all.  In  the 
absence  of  the  manager,  Mr.  Trotter,  part  proprietor 
of  the  estate,  undertook  to  investigate  the  matter  for 
us,  and  afterwards  informed  us  in  evidence  that  he 
had  discovered  an  inquest  was  held,  which,  on  apply- 
ing for  the  papers,  we  found  to  have  taken  place  after 
our  visit  had  called  attention  to  the  subject,  and  three 
weeks  after  the  occurrence.  But  the  gravest  of  all  the 
cases  in  this  connection  is  the  murder  of  Low-a-si 
on  Plantation  Annandale,  on  Friday,  the  28th  May, 
1868,  and  repeatedly  referred  to  in  evidence  before  us. 
In  this  case,  a  series  of  assaults  of  great  barbarity 
were  committed  upon  the  person  of  a  Chinese  work- 
ing as  '  boxman  ' — that  is  to  say,  wheeling  away  the 
trucks  containing  megass — in  the  buildings  on  an 
evening  when,  apparently  owing  to  bad  health  and 
fatigue,  he  was  unable  or  unwilling  to  work,  although 
it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  there  was  any  definite 
intention  on  the  part  of  the  two  overseers  and  drivers 
who  were  implicated,  especially  the  head  overseer 
and  driver,  in  these  acts  of  violence ;  yet  it  would 
appear  from  the  evidence  taken  before  the  coroner 
that  a  clea-r  pri7nd  facie  case  of  murder  existed  against 
Matheson  and  Baker,  the  head  overseer  and  driver  in 
question.  The  inquest  was  held  by  a  neighbouring 
manager,  in  favour  of  whose  impartiality  it  is  recorded 
by  Mr.  Cox  that  on  one  occasion  he  sent  on  to  the 
Supreme  Court  the  son  of  the  lessee  of  another  estate 
for  murder.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  against  the 
driver  of  'manslaughter,'  and  the  coroner  reported 
to  the  police  that  there  was  no  evidence  against  the 
overseer,  meaning  apparently  that  there  was  no 
evidence  against  him  to  which  the  jury  could  have 
given  credit.  In  the  meantime,  both  Matheson  and 
Baker  had  absconded  on  the  very  night  of  the  murder, 
and  warrants  were  out  for  their  apprehension.     On 


a^^  THE  COOLIE. 

receipt  of  the  private  information  from  the  coroner 
that  there  was  no  evidence  against  Llatheson,  Mr. 
Cox  seems  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was 
his  duty,  of  his  own  authority,  and  without  further 
inquiry,  to  suspend  the  warrant  for  his  apprehension, 
at  the  same  time  that,  with  some  inconsistency,  he 
directed  a  prosecution  of  the  driver,  not  for  '  man- 
slaughter,' in  accordance  with  the  verdict,  but  for 
*  murder.'  The  proceedings  in  the  inquest,  ap- 
parently, must  have  been  forwarded  to  the  Attorney- 
General;  but  of  this  we  are  compelled  to  remain 
uncertain,  as  also  of  the  fact — which  we  should  have 
considered  hardly  admitted  of  a  doubt — how  far  the 
Attorney-General's  responsibility  in  such  matters 
covers  that  of  the  Inspector-General  of  Police.  Air. 
Gilbert,  the  present  holder  of  the  office,  in  his  evidence 
seemed  to  consider  this  is  a  question  of  law  so 
doubtful  that  he  would  not  be  justified  in  stating  his 
opinion  on  oath,  or  in  any  other  than  in  the  profes- 
sional form. 

"  Baker  the  driver  was  caught  in  Trinidad,  brought 
back,  and  tried  for  the  murder.  Matheson  is  reported 
to  have  remained  in  hiding  until  intimation  was  con- 
veyed to  him  that  he  was  not  '  wanted,'  under  cir- 
cumstances implying  that  considerable  interest  was 
being  made  to  protect  him  from  the  law.  Finally, 
the  driver  was  acquitted.  Whether  the  jury  thought 
he  was  being  made  a  scapegoat  for  a  crime  for  which 
his  superior  was  more  responsible  than  himself  we 
cannot  say  ;  but  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  if  both 
the  perpetrators  had  been  put  at  once  upon  their  trial, 
it  would  have  been  possible  for  them  both  to  escape 
without  punishment. 

"  The  conclusion  we  draw  from  these  and  other 
cases  is,  that  the  English  notion  of  a  coroner's  jury  is 
utterly  unfitted  for  the  country  districts  of  British 
Guiana.     We  recommend  that  the  duty  of  holding 


AIDS  AND  REMEDIES,  273 

inquests  be  transferred  to  the  stipendiary  magistrates, 
or  coroners  specially  appointed,  that  the  jury  be  dis- 
pensed with,  and  that  tiie  magistrates  be  required  to 
report  directly  to  the  Attorney-General  on  all  cases 
of  death  by  violence,  or  under  suspicious  circum- 
stances, stating  whether,  in  their  opinion,  there  is 
giound  for  a  prosecution  ;  but  if  not,  reporting  to  the 
Attorney-General  all  the  same.  The  duty  of  deciding 
in  such  cases  whether  or  not  a  warrant  is  to  be 
enforced  should  also  be  clearly  made  and  recognised 
as  part  of  the  Attorney-General's  functions." 

The  number  of  floating  stories,  among  the  Chinese 
especially,  of  murders  or  suicides  occurring  on 
estates,  which,  it  was  alleged,  were  never  disclosed 
or  made  the  subject  of  inquests — the  ghastly  fables  of 
hanging  men,  cut  down  and  forthwith  buried  where 
they  fell,  all  that  were  investigated  turning  out  to 
be  untrue — proves  that  the  extreme  suspiciousness 
of  the  immigrants  requires  extra  care  and  caution  to 
repress  it.  I  go  no  further  than  that.  The  Com- 
missioners, I  am  very  happy  to  see,  and  as  I  antici- 
pated, find  that  instances  of  personal  cruelty  on  the 
part  of  managers  are  very  rare.  They  are  not  so  clear 
about  the  black  and  Coolie  drivers ;  but  the  less 
cause  there  is  for  suspicion  the  more  policy  is  there 
in  placing  these  dangerous  questions  beyond  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  doubt. 

To  sum  up,  therefore,  the  natural  deductions  from  this 
chapter.  To  the  Immigration  Office  should  be  restored 
its  lost  powers  as  an  original  and  originating  depart- 
ment ;  as  a  necessity  arising  out  of  that,  the  Agent- 
General  will  require  to  be  a  man  of  considerable 
ability,  tact,  and  force  of  character.  The  Medical 
Inspector  of  Hospitals  should  have  funds  placed  at  his 
disposal  for  prosecutions,  and  should  not  threaten, 
but  prosecute.  To  enable  the  Coolie,  and  all  acting 
for  him,   to   resort  with   confidence   to  the  seats  of 

T 


27+  THE  COOLIE. 

justice,  the  greatest  care  in  the  selection  of  able  and 
independent  magistrates  should  be  exercised  by  the 
Colonial  Office.  Gentlemen  justices  of  the  peace 
should  be  abolished  in  the  colony,  and  the  inquests 
held,  as  the  Commissioners  suggest,  by  the  stipendiary 
magistrates,  without  a  jury. 

I  should  hope  none  of  the  great  planters,  either  in 
the  colony  or  at  home,  would  offer  any  objection  to 
this  reasonable  programme. 


275 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  DOCTORS,  AND  HOSPITALS. 

AVERY  large  portion  of  the  Report  of  the  Com- 
mission is  devoted  to  the  subject  of  health, 
hospitals,  and  the  medical  staff.  The  valuable  section 
on  "  Mortality  and  Acclimatisation  "  will  be  found  in 
the  Appendix.*  I  do  not  propose  to  enter  at  any- 
great  length  into  this  subject,  as  it  appears  to  me  to 
be  a  subordinate  one  in  relation  to  the  general  purpose 
of  this  review. 

Enough  has  already  been  said  of  the  dwellings,  the 
drainage  about  them,  and  the  absence  of  legal  en- 
forcement of  penalties  by  the  medical  or  other  autho- 
rities. The  planters  are  showing  so  much  energy  in 
improving  their  dwelling  accommodation,  that  one 
may  hope  before  long  no  pressure,  legal  or  otherwise, 
will  be  needed  in  that  respect. 

The  water  supply — a  matter  of  no  small  interest  in 
a  colony  where  nearly  all  the  good  drinking-water  is 
collected  from  the  skies  during  the  rainy  season — is, 
as  yet,  rather  imperfectly  provided  for.  Generally 
the  immigrants  are  obliged  to  drink  the  bush-water, 
which  is  charged  with  a  great  quantity  of  organic 
matter;  and  though  one  of  the  managers  assured  me 
that  every  day  when  he  went  "  back  "  he  took  a  large 
bowlful   as   an   alterative — a  process  which,  if  per- 

*  Appendix  F 


276  THE  COOLIE. 

severed  in,  ought,  I  should  say,  to  convert  him  into 
a  fine  specimen  of  moco-moco  weed — there  is  no 
doubt  that  this  water,  seldom  obtainable  from  the 
trenches  with  the  limited  purity  even  of  its  native 
woods,  is  an  unhealthy  beverage.  Many  proprietors 
are  now  importing  from  England  large  tanks  of  iron, 
and  no  doubt  will  find,  in  the  improved  health  of  their 
immigrants,  the  double  recompense  of  greater  use- 
fulness and  happiness. 

The  hospital  system  of  British  Guiana  is  rather 
elaborate,  and  gives  rise  to  one  of  the  largest  items 
of  expense  in  estate  management.  Every  estate, 
before  immigrants  are  allotted  to  it,  is  required  by 
law  to  have  a  hospital  suitable  and  sufficient  for  the 
immigrants  on  the  estate ;  and  if  at  any  time  it  is 
made  to  appear  to  the  Governor  and  Court  of  Policy 
that  any  such  hospital  is  insufficient,  or  the  arrange- 
ment is  in  any  respect  defective  or  injurious  to  the 
health  of  the  patients,  the  Governor  and  Court  of 
Policy,  by  order  under  the  hand  of  the  Government 
Secretary,  may  call  upon  the  proprietor  or  lessee  to 
provide  additional  accommodation  or  remedy  the 
defect.*  Why  the  legislature  should  be  mixed  up 
in  a  matter  purely  executive  will  be  a  natural  ques- 
tion to  any  one  considering  the  above  enactment. 
The  existence  of  an  Immigration  Office  and  of  a 
Medical  Inspector  of  Hospitals  is  disregarded,  though 
we  should  naturally  look  to  one  or  other  of  these 
powers  to  take  charge  of  this  matter. 

Further,  the  proprietor  or  lessee  of  every  estate  on 
which  immigrants  are  situated  is  bound  to  employ  a 
duly  licensed  medical  practitioner,  reporting  his  name 
to  the  Government  Secretary. f 

The  medical  practitioner  is  to  visit  the  estate  "  at 
least  once  in  every  forty-eight  hours,  Sundays  excepted, 
unless  in  cases  of  emergency,"  when  the  manager  is 

•  Sec.  127  Ordinance  4  of  1864.    t  Sec.  133  Ordinance  4  of  1864. 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  277 

bound  to  bring  before  him  every  immigrant  needing 
medical  assistance.  The  doctor  is  then  required  to 
make  certain  entries  in  register  and  case  books,  to 
be  produced  by  the  manager.  He  is,  unless  the 
nurse  shall  hold  a  proper  certificate  of  competency 
for  the  purpose,  himself  to  make  up  all  the  medicines 
which,  during  his  visit,  he  may  order  for  the  patients. 
He  is  bound  to  inform  every  patient  in  the  hospital 
of  the  scale  of  diet  ordered  for  him  ;  and  the  articles 
are  to  be  supplied  by  the  manager,  properly  cooked 
and  fit  for  use,  unless,  for  reasons  of  caste,  the  pa- 
tient desires  it  uncooked.  Further,  on  the  doctor 
is  laid  the  duty  of  '*  taking  care  that  the  hospital, 
with  all  bedding,  utensils,  and  appliances  belonging 
thereto,  be  at  all  times  kept  clean  and  in  proper  order, 
and  that  there  be  at  all  times  an  adequate  supply 
of  the  medicines  required  by  law,  of  good  quality ;  " 
in  default  of  which  he  is  required  to  make  a  note 
in  the  register,  for  the  information  of  the  manager. 
The  doctor  is  subjected  to  a  penalty,  not  to  exceed 
24,  for  not  complying  with  any  of  these  injunctions. 

The  proprietor  or  lessee  is  also  to  employ  one 
nurse,  or  more,  when  specially  required  to  do  so  by 
the  medical  practitioner,  or  by  the  Medical  Inspector, 
in  cases  of  unusual  sickness,  and  a  female  nurse  if 
there  be  any  female  patients  ;  removable  on  a  certi- 
ficate of  unfitness  by  the  Medical  Inspector.* 

Another  section f  enacted  that  the  Colonial  Sur- 
geon-General, the  Medical  Inspector,  and  one  other 
medical  practitioner,  selected  by  the  Governor  and 
Court  of  Policy,  having  already  framed  and  submitted 
for  the  approval  of  the  Governor  and  Court  of  Policy 
a  list  of  medicines,  and  the  quantities  of  each  to 
be  kept  in  each  estate  hospital,  and  likewise  a  list 
of  the  bedding,  utensils,  and  other  appliances,  to  be 
supplied  for  the  use  of  the  same,  and  copies  of  such 

*  Sec.  134  Ordinance  4  of  1864.  t  lb.,  sec.  135. 


278  THE  COOLIE. 

lists  as  approved  having  been  transmitted  by  the 
Government  Secretary  to  the  proprietor  or  lessee  of 
each  plantation,  or  his  representative,  such  pro- 
prietor, lessee,  or  representative  shall  be  bound  from 
time  to  time,  when  necessary,  to  replace  any  such 
appliances  which  may  be  lost  or  worn  out.  The 
statement  that  the  committee  had  already  framed  such 
a  list  turned  out,  on  examination,  to  be  a  legislative 
fib ;  and  afterwards  the  committee,  instead  of  framing 
it  as  enjoined,  reported  that  *'  the  provisions  of  the 
ordinance,  as  it  stands,  are  sufficietit  for  the  attainment 
of  t/ie  objects  in  view,  and  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  com- 
plicate matters  by  further  regulations!!!"  I  should 
hope  that  such  a  report  by  official  commissioners 
appointed  by  statute  to  do  a  certain  thing  is 
unique  within  British  dominions.  The  legislature 
had  decided  that  further  provisions  and  regulations 
were  necessary;  but  these  gentlemen — one  the  Medical 
Inspector  of  Hospitals  —  naively  disagree  with  the 
legislature.  Disagreement  often  exists  between  a 
legislature  and  those  whom  its  laws  affect ;  but  the 
former  generally  gets  its  way,  or  hands  the  protester 
over  to  justice.  In  British  Guiana  the  legislature,  or 
the  Executive,  were  not  so  unreasonable.  The  three 
had  the  pleasure  of  repealing  an  act  by  a  letter. 
Similar  provisions*  with  regard  to  diet  lists,  and 
rules  and  regulations  for  hospitals,  were  also  depre- 
catingly  waived  by  the  same  commissioners. 

Resort  was  however  had  to  a  circular  issued  under 
a  former  ordinance.!  Under  this  circular  suitable  and 
sufficient  hospital  accommodation  was  defined  to  be:  — 
That  a  kitchen  should  be  attached  to  the  hospital; 
that  there  should  be  a  bath-room,  a  tub,  and  sufficient 
supply  of  water;  a  water-closet  on  the  same  floor 
as  the  hospital,  together   with  two  movable  night- 

*  Sees.  137,  144  of  Ordinance  4  of  1864. 
t  Ordinance  17  of  1859. 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  279 

chairs ;  that  the  hospital  should  be  a  building  with 
at  least  two  apartments  for  the  accommodation 
separately  of  males  and  females ;  that  each  estate 
possessing  not  more  than  fifty  immigrants  should 
have  hospital  accommodation  for  ten  beds  ;  from  fifty 
to  one  hundred,  fifteen  beds ;  and  five  per  cent,  for 
every  additional  hundred;  that  between  each  bed  there 
should  be  a  clear  space  of  three  feet,  and  when  the 
beds  were  placed  in  rows  there  should  be  a  clear 
space  of  six  feet  between  the  rows,  and  nothing  less 
than  1,000  cubic  feet  of  air  to  each  patient ;  that  each 
bedstead  should  be  supplied  with  bed  and  pillow 
sack,  with  suitable  dry  material  for  stuffing,  together 
with  two  sheets  and  a  blanket ;  for  every  bed  there 
should  be  a  washstand,  basin,  chamber  utensil,  tin 
cup  and  plate ;  that  attached  to  each  bed  should  be  a 
black-board,  on  which  should  be  written  the  patient's 
name,  date  of  admission,  medicines  and  diet  last 
ordered,  and  at  the  head  of  each  bed  should  be  a 
small  shelf. 

This,  then,  was  the  ample  machinery  provided  by 
the  law  for  securing  comfort  and  attention  to  the 
sick  Coolie.  The  machinery  was  ample,  but  the 
performance  came  very  far  short  of  the  promise. 
In  hardly  one  particular  can  it  be  said  that  there  were 
not  many  and  flagrant  evasions  or  breaches  by  all 
concerned,  from  the  Executive  to  the  sick-nurse,  of 
the  conditions  thus  laid  down. 

In  discussing  this  question,  which  is  one  well 
calculated  to  heat  sensation  to  a  boiling  pitch,  let  us, 
to  be  just,  consider  the  difficulties  which  lie  in  the 
way  of  the  planter  in  coming  up  to  such  exio^eant 
regulations.  Any  one  glancing  over  them  must  see 
at  once  that  the  expense  of  the  provision  here 
required  will  be  very  heavy.  It  falls  upon  the 
planter  at  the  time  when,  perhaps,  he  needs  all  his 
capital  for  the  development  of  his   estate.     It  is  a 


28o  THE  COOLIE. 

continuous  and  heavy  deduction  from  his  profits  or 
addition  to  his  losses.  He  is  simultaneously  deprived 
of  his  workman's  labour  and  charged  with  the  ex- 
pense of  keeping  and  healing  him.  Moreover,  when 
he  most  wants  immigrants,  and  has  to  find  a  large 
sum  of  money  to  obtain  them,  he  finds  himself  forced 
to  expend  money  to  enlarge  his  hospital  and  stock  it 
with  the  necessary  furniture.  The  burthen  is  spe- 
cially great  when  the  estate  gets  into  difficulties, 
when  it  is  hovering  between  bankruptcy  and  success, 
when  certain  ruin  must  ensue  if  immigrants  are 
withdrawn  or  fresh  ones  denied,  and  yet  the  res 
angusta  prevent  the  fulfilment  of  the  necessary  condi- 
tions precedent. 

Now  all  this  exhibits  the  difficulties,  but  it  affords 
no  answer  to  the  reformer.  The  easy  retort  to  planters 
in  every  stage  of  progress  or  decay  is — No  proper 
medical  provisions,  no  immigrants.  The  immigration 
system  is  one  that  can  only  be  successfully  carried  out 
by  wealthy  capitalists.  It  is  worse  than  bad  policy — 
it  is  cruel — to  encourage  speculative  enterprise  in  any 
business  in  which  the  welfare  of  immigrants  is  in 
jeopardy.  Hence,  I  expect  it  will  be  found  that  the 
sugar  estates  of  Guiana  will  be  absorbed  by  rich  pro- 
prietors in  proportion  to  the  rigour  with  which  the 
Executive  enforces  the  conditions  of  the  immigration 
contract ;  a  process  not  to  my  mind  undesirable. 

The  main  questions  that  arose  before  the  Commis- 
sion upon  the  medical  management  of  estates  are 
divisible  into  the  questions  of  personiicl  and  of  plant 
and  material. 

The  supervision  of  the  system  is  confided  to  the 
Medical  Inspector  of  Hospitals,  an  office  at  present  held 
by  Dr.  Shier,  a  man  of  high  scientific  attainments  and 
unusual  abilities.  It  is  his  duty  to  visit  every  hospital 
in  the  colony  once  in  six  months,  and  at  each  such 
visit  carefully  ascertain  whether  all  the  provisions  of 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  281 

the  ordinance  within  the  scope  of  his  jurisdiction 
have  been  duly  complied  with,  and  in  every  case  of 
omission  or  violation  of  them  to  direct  the  manager 
or  the  medical  practitioner,  as  the  case  may  be,  to 
remedy  it.  Furthermore,  he  is,  if  necessary,  to  make 
a  representation  to  the  Governor  and  Court  of  Policy. 
He  might  also  set  in  motion  the  law  in  particular 
cases  of  abuse,  a»  power  which,  in  the  chapter  on 
Remedies  on  the  Coolie's  behalf,  was  shown  to  have 
been  held  in  abeyance.  In  fact,  Dr.  Shier  took  ten 
years  to  consider  whether  he  ought  to  put  in  force 
against  managers  the  terrible  sanctions  of  $24  penal- 
ties. The  Commissioners  have  commented  with  some 
severity  upon  Dr   Shier's  administration. 

I  select  from  the  Report  the  few  paragraphs  which 
describe,  more  significantly  than  any  other  I  could 
select,  the  character  of  Dr.  Shier's  supervision,  the 
amazing  long-suffering  of  the  Executive,  and  the 
cool,  leisurely  indifference  with  which  gentlemen  con- 
nected with  a  magnificent  estate  treated  every  one 
else  but  themselves.  Anna  Regina  is  owned  by  Mr. 
Thomas  Edward  Moss  ;  the  attorney  of  the  estate, 
Mr.  Josias  Booker,  was  a  member  of  the  Court  of 
Policy;  Mr.  Griffin  S.  Bascom,  the  manager,  was  also 
a  member  of  the  Court  of  Policy,  and  one  of  the 
financial  representatives. 

"  Dr.  Shier  defends  the  course  he  pursues  because, 
if  when  he  was  appointed  he  had  commenced  a  pro- 
secution for  every  departure  from  the  ordinance,  it 
would  have  been  a  *  dead  letter '  at  this  day.  He 
thinks  there  would  have  been  no  possibility  of  the 
hospitals  attaining  the  state  they  have  now  arrived 
at ;  that  it  would  have  raised  a  spirit  of  antagonism 
instead  of  willingness  to  do  what  the  law  requires, 
and  that  he  would  have  been  foiled  at  every  corner. 
We  cannot,  in  examining  the  records  of  the  inspec- 
tions, find  much  difference  in  the  requisitions  made 


2  82  THE  COOLIE. 

on  the  14th  find  intermediate  inspections,  and  thosa 
made  on  the  21st;  they  appear  much  of  the  same 
nature,  and  to  be  attended  to,  or  disregarded,  much 
in  the  same  manner. 

"  Dr.  Shier  considers  the  violation  of  rules  he  dis- 
covered mostly  trivial,  and  declares  that  if  they  were 
of  serious  moment  it  would  be  matter  of  very  great 
uneasiness.  We  notice,  however,  neglect  to  build 
hospitals  when  required,  occasionally  under  circum- 
stances justifying  the  imputation  of  a  breach  of  faith  ; 
or  to  issue  as  rations  the  proper  diet,  and  sick  people 
kept  in  the  cold  for  want  of  blankets,  which  are  not 
trivial  violations  of  the  rules.  Dr.  Shier's  remarks, 
in  such  a  case  as  Anna  Regina,  show  that  he  does 
not  look  upon  them  as  such,  while  Columbia,  Haar- 
lem, and  Houston,  to  all  of  which  we  shall  refer  in 
detail  hereafter,  appear  almost  equally  bad. 

"  We  cannot  find  that  Dr.  Shier  ever  enforced  an 
observance  of  his  instructions  by  means  of  the  law, 
or  that  he  ever,  by  mentioning  a  time  within  which  an 
alteration  was  to  be  made,  took  pains  to  put  himself 
in  a  position  to  enforce  it. 

"  Until  the  19th  inspection.  May,  1869,  the  notes  and 
records  were  sent  to  the  Immigration  Office,  from 
thence  submitted  to  the  Governor,  and  if  instructions 
were  to  be  issued  upon  them,  they  were  issued  by  the 
Immigration  Department.  In  May,  1869,  the  plan 
was  changed,  the  notes  were  submitted  to  Govern- 
ment, and  the  orders  issued  direct  by  the  Government 
Secretary.  We  do  not  find  any  perceptible  difference 
in  the  manner  in  which  these  orders  are  received  and 
attended  to,  by  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  ad- 
dressed ;  they  do  not  appear  to  pay  more  attention  to 
the  orders  from  the  Government  Secretary  than  they 
did  to  those  coming  through  the  Immigration  Office. 
We  have  not  been  able  to  find  a  register  of  unan- 
swered references  in   either  office,  but  on  inquiring 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  283 

in  the  Immigration  Office  for  the  answers  to  forty- 
two  letters,  we  were  furnished  with  sixteen,  and  in- 
formed that  twenty-six  could  not  be  found.  So  in 
the  Government  Secretary's  Office  we  received  ten 
answers  only,  out  of  twenty-nine  that  we  asked  for ; 
showing  in  both  instances  that  about  one-third  only 
of  these  communications  are  answered.  There  are  of 
course  some  letters  answered  in  the  best  and  most 
effectual  manner,  that  is,  by  the  work  required  being 
done  ;  and  then  the  neglect  in  answering  the  letter  is 
a  mere  want  of  courtesy." 

"  But  to  return  to  Dr.  Shier's  requisitions  to  build 
new  hospitals.  In  December,  1866,  Dr  Shier,  at 
Anna  Regina,  '  requests  that  as  little  delay  as  pos- 
sible be  allowed  to  take  place  in  the  erection  of  a  new 
hospital.' 

"  In  October  he  writes,  *  New  hospital  now  in 
course  of  erection,  and  will  be  ready  for  occupation 
I  St  January,  1868;  if  the  wards  are  properly  laid  out 
this  will  make  a  very  commodious  hospital.'  *  I  did 
not  approve  of  the  site.'  'April,  1868,  new  hospital 
being  hnished,  and  will  be  in  use,  it  is  thought,  in  a 
fortnight.'  'October,  1868,  old  hospital  still  in  use, 
requests  that  every  effort  be  made  to  have  arrange- 
ments in  the  new  hospital  completed  so  that  it  might 
be  occupied  as  soon  as  possible.  It  is  very  much  to 
be  regretted  that  so  much  time  has  been  consumed 
in  completing  and  occupying  this  hospital.  On  the 
14th  April  I  was  informed  that  the  occupancy  of  the 
building  was  expected  in  a  fortnight,  and  yet,  six 
months  later,  matters  are  found  in  exactly  the  same 
condition.  It  appears  that  the  contractor  broke  down 
in  the  fulfilment  of  his  contract ;  but  the  great  cause 
of  the  delay  is  doubtless  to  be  attributed  to  the  cir- 
cumstance of  the  manager  having  to  lt;ave  the  colony 
in  bad  health  Had  failing  health  not  compelled  him 
to  be  absent  for  several  months,  I  feel  sure  the  hospital 


284  THE  COOLIE. 

would. have  been  finished  and  in  use  soon  after  my 
visit  in  April.'  *  ]\Iay,  i86g.  To  my  regret  and 
amazement,  I  found  the  old  hospital  still  in  use.  The 
remarks  which  I  made  in  the  foregoing  entry  regard- 
ing the  manager,  I  have  now  to  retract  as  being 
thoroughly  inapplicable.  I  find  that  the  manager 
had  taken  up  his  abode  in  the  new  hospital  while  a 
new  residence  was  being  built  for  himself.  It  is  to 
be  remarked  that  fresh  allotments  of  immigrants  have 
been  made  during  the  whole  period.  It  is  true  that 
there  has  been  comparatively  little  mortality  among 
the  immigrants,  yet  I  can  see  no  excuse  for  this  most 
extraordinary  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  manager. 
I  cannot  but  look  upon  it  as  a  breach  of  good  faith.' 

*' On  this  Mr.  Crosby  remarks,  'There  has  been 
an  application  for  175  indentured  immigrants  for 
the  season  '69-70.  I  have  allotted  25  to  the  Anna 
Regina  estate  by  the  Far  East,  1869.  I  am  of 
opinion  not  another  immigrant  should  be  allotted  to 
the  estate,  or  a  single  other  immigrant,  except  such 
as  already  reside  on  the  estate,  be  paid  bounty.  This 
is  one  of  the  first  estates  in  the  colony,  one  of  the  most 
productive,  and  the  proprietor  a  very  rich  man.' 

"In  November,  1869,  Dr.  Shier  found,  'New  hos- 
pital in  occupation,  but  only  since  the  day  before. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  unwarrantable  cases  of  delay 
that  has  come  under  my  notice,  and  strongly  exhibits 
the  apparent  indifference  of  the  manager  to  the 
comfort  of  the  people  intrusted  to  his  care.  The 
hospital  is  very  scantily  supplied  with  hospital  furni- 
ture and  requisites.  It  is  stated  that  bedsteads, 
bedding,  &c ,  have  been  ordered  from  England. 
Eighteen  months  have  elapsed  since  I  was  informed 
that  the  hospital  would  be  in  occupation,  and  surely 
ample  time  has  been  afforded  to  provide  everything 
necessary  for  Hospital  use.' 

"  On  this  the  following  letter  was  written  to  Mr.  G. 
H.  Bascom,  and  his  answer  follows  : — 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  285 

"  '  3rd  December,  1869. 

"  '  G.  H.  Bascom,  Esquire, 

"  *  Sir, — The  Medical  Inspector  of  Estates  Hos- 
pitals, in  his  recent  report  on  his  inspection  of  estates 
in  Essequibo,  remarks  on  the  delay  which  has  oc- 
curred in  the  occupation  of  the  new  hospital  at 
Plantation  Anna  Regina,  and  states  that  it  is  very 
scantily  supplied  with  hospital  furniture  and  requi- 
sites. 

"  *  He  adds  that  he  was  informed  that  bedsteads, 
bedding",  &c.,  had  been  ordered  from  England,  but  as 
eighteen  months  have  elapsed  since  he  was  told  that 
the  hospital  would  be  in  occupation,  ample  time  has 
been  afforded  to  provide  everything  necessary  for 
hospital  use.  His  Excellency  trusts  that  this  matter 
will  receive  early  attention. 

"  '  I  have,  &c., 
(Signed)        "  *  James  Grant, 

Government  Secretary.' 

«• '  Pin.  Anna  Regina,  loth  December,  1869. 

"  *  Sir, — I  have  the  honour  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  your  communication.  No.  2,484,  in  reference 
to  the  hospital  on  this  estate.  In  reply  I  beg  to  state 
that  a  new  building  has  just  been  erected,  at  a  cost 
of  over  $6,000  to  the  estate,  containing  the  extent  of 
floorage  and  cubical  contents  prescribed  by  law,  for 
the  accommodation  of  80  patients,  being  the  propor- 
tion for  a  resident  population  of  800  immigrants. 
P'orty-eight  iron  bedsteads,  and  the  proper  amount  of 
bedding  and  hospital  furniture  required  in  addition 
to  the  present  furnishings,  have  just  been  shipped 
from  Liverpool. 

"  '  I  have  the  honour  to  be.  Sir,  your  obedient  Ser- 
vant, 

**  *  G.  H.  Bascom. 

"  '  To  the  Honourable  James  Grant, 
Government  Secretary.' 


286  THE  COOLIE. 

"  This  was  referred  to  Dr.  Shier,  who  made  the 
following  note  upon  it: — 'The  Executive  was  in- 
formed eighteen  months  ago  of  the  erection  and 
capacity  of  this  hospital.  Mr.  Bascom  gives  no 
reason  why  the  hospital  should  have  remained  so 
long  unapplied  to  its  proper  use ;  nor  why  the  neces- 
sary furnishings  should  be  now  only  shipped  from 
Liverpool. 

'*D.  S.,  1 8th  December,  1869/ 

"Still,  in  May,  1870,  Dr.  Shier  found  the  hospital 
with  strangers  in  it,  the  apartments  under  the  hospital 
still  used  as  a  writing-room  by  overseers  and  clerks, 
and  one  of  the  wards  used  as  a  medicine  room,  while 
patients  are  under  treatment  in  it.  The  writing-room 
was  to  have  been  cleared  without  delay  six  months 
before.  An  office  has  been  built  within  fifteen  yards 
of  the  hospital,  and  the  room,  it  was  said,  would 
now  be  vacated.  Dr.  Shier  adds  :  *  What  amount 
of  quiet  and  comfort  these  patients  can  enjoy  in 
the  bustle  of  a  medicine  apartment  may  readily 
be  judged  of.  It  is  from  inconsiderate  and  unwar- 
rantable practices  like  these  that  the  Estates  Hos- 
pital system  in  this  colony  is  rendered  liable  to  just 
censure.' 

'*  Upon  this,  Government  wrote  to  jNIr.  Bascom  that, 
'unless  the  suggestions  made  from  time  to  time  by 
Dr.  Shier  are  not  at  once  carried  out,  all  further  allot- 
ment of  immigrants  will  be  stopped.'" 

The  Executive  appears  to  have  been  as  chary  as 
Dr.  Shier  in  bearding  so  powerful  a  conjunction  as 
the  manager  and  attorney  of  this  estate.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  one  arising  during  the  transitional  develop- 
ment of  the  estate  by  means  of  the  arriving  Coolies, 
and  could  be  defended  on  that  ground  with  much 
plausibility  ;  but  it  is  clear  that,  whatever  sacrifices 
require  to   be   made   in   such  a  process,   the  Coolie 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  287 

should  not  be  called  upon  to  make  any  of  them,  still 
less  to  be  subjected  to  awkward  and  even  perilous 
inconveniences.  Before  leaving  the  Medical  In- 
spector of  Hospitals,  it  should  be  mentioned  that  the 
criticisms  passed  upon  him  by  the  Report  do  not  fall 
on  narrow  shoulders.  Though  he  was  affected  with 
Scotch  timidity  in  using  his  powers,  and  was  too  often 
hoodwinked  by  clever  managers,  his  great  energy, 
constant  attention  to  business,  and  the  shifts  to  which 
he  put  himself  to  avoid  accepting  managerial  hos- 
pitality, deserved  honourable  notice,  as  I  hope  they 
will  get  their  reward.  Even  the  Commissioners 
have  a  word  of  excuse :  "  We  have  seen  how  the 
Immigration  Agent-General  has  been  deprived  of  his 
powers,  and  it  is  but  natural  to  suppose  that  Dr. 
Shier  took  warning  from  what  he  might  have  seen  in 
the  Immigration  Office,  and  contented  himself  with 
leaving  it  for  the  Government  to  notice,  if  they  would, 
what  he  found  wrong  on  the  estates,  satisfying  him- 
self with  having  laid  the  case  before  the  Executive. 
That  course  was  not  contemplated  by  the  law,  but  it 
seems  consonant  with  the  system  on  which  the  de- 
partment is  administered." 

The  doctors,  as  I  shall  term  them,  avoiding  the 
euphemism  of  the  ordinance,  are  appointed  by  the 
proprietors  or  attorneys.  Hence  the  very  responsible 
duties  they  have  to  discharge,  both  to  the  Government 
and  the  Coolie,  are  performed  subject  to  the  appro- 
bation of  their  employers,  the  managers.  On  the  face 
jf  it  the  position  is  untenable,  and  facts  and  criticisms 
3xplode  it  altogether.  Many  of  the  doctors  in  the 
colony  are  men  of  very  considerable  attainments,  and 
great  skill  in  their  profession.  But  the  temptation  to 
undertake  more  work  than  they  can  manage  is 
dangerously  strong.  Of  the  duties  cast  upon  them, 
the  Commissioners  have  found  several  instances  of 
neglect.    The  visit  every  forty-eight  hours,  which  is 


288  THE  COOLIE. 

carefully  made  by  the  Georgetown  doctors,  is  some- 
times in  remoter  districts  reduced  to  twice  a  week, 
or  less. 

The  injunction  that  the  doctor  should  make  notes 
of  the  cases  in  the  register  and  case  book  was  ad- 
mitted not  to  be  usually  observed.  The  compound- 
ing of  the  medicines  by  the  doctor,  insisted  upon  by 
the  ordinance,  except  in  certain  specific  cases,  is 
never  undertaken  by  him.  Again,  patients  are  not 
generally  informed  of  their  diet  by  the  doctor.  The 
attention  given  by  the  practitioners  to  the  furniture 
and  utensils  appears  to  have  been  discreetly  indif- 
ferent. "  Dr.  Dalton  would  not  notice  them  at  all 
unless  brought  specially  before  him  ;  and  the  medical 
practitioner  at  Eliza  and  Mary  considers  it  his  duty 
not  to  notice  anything  only  when  *  glaringly  wrong, 
that  is,  very  much  out  of  order.'  That  being  the 
general  rule,  we  were  not  surprised  at  finding  all  the 
defects  and  deficiencies  we  have  already  noticed  in 
hospitals  we  visited." 

On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  Hutson  assured  the  Com- 
missioners that  he  always  found  the  managers  most 
willing  to  carry  out  any  suggestions  made  by  the 
medical  man. 

It  is  needless  to  go  any  further  into  the  medical 
attendance  of  the  estate.  Its  ability  and  integrity 
have  been  found  consistent  with  great  abuses  and 
evasions  of  the  law.  The  relation,  on  its  present 
basis,  is,  as  I  have  said,  so  indefensible  in  principle 
that  it  must  give  way  before  the  alteration  advocated 
by  Governor  Scott,  and  adopted  in  Trinidad,  namely, 
the  conversion  of  the  doctors  into  Government  officers. 
The  independence  of  the  medical  officers  who  super- 
vise the  treatment  of  Coolies  is  essential  to  its  proper 
working ;  and  no  other  consideration  is  worth  tlu 
thought. 

As  to  the  nurses,  on  whom  too  much  of  the  real 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  289 

medical  treatment  of  the  Coolie  depends,  there  is 
reported  to  be  a  peculiar  opening  for  improvement. 
Many  of  them  are  licensed  by  the  Colonial  Hospital, 
holding  "certificates  of  competency;"  others  have 
undergone  "  probation  and  examination  ; "  others  are 
undoubted  casuals.  The  law  requires  no  qualification, 
and  there  are  managers  who  in  that  particular  respect 
the  law.  "  At  Golden  Fleece,"  say  the  Commis- 
sioners, "  the  nurse,  a  respectable  woman,  who  had 
been  there  about  three  years,  had  the  charge  of  the 
hospital,  and  7nade  up  aiid  administered  all  the  -niedicijte  ; 
she  had  had  no  training  except  having  been  a  year  at 
Taymouth  Manor  and  for  a  month  at  the  Colonial 
Hospital,  'and  learned  nothing.'"  They  are  lucky 
immigrants  whose  employer  mixes  the  medicines  him- 
self, as  he  may  by  the  ordinance. 

As  to  the  hospital  buildings,  and  furniture,  and 
patients'  clothing,  the  energetic  investigations  of  the 
Commissioners  have  accumulated  a  mass  of  facts 
running  through  all  stages,  from  amusing  to  revolting. 

Dr.  Shier  himself  had  already,  in  one  of  his  reports, 
noted  that  "  where  the  estates'  hospitals  are  not  in  a 
satisfactory  condition,  it  will  be  principally  found  that 
it  is  on  the  estates  on  lease,  estates  in  the  market  to 
be  sold,  and  estates  partially  or  wholly  in  the  Admi- 
nistrator-General's hands."  This  the  Commissioners 
confirmed.  To  such  causes  it  must  be  partly  attri- 
buted that  the  various  rules  as  to  the  proportionate 
number  of  beds,  spaces  between  beds,  cubic  feet  of  air 
to  each  person,  are  not  unfrequently  disregarded.  The 
Medical  Inspector  also  said  in  one  of  his  reports  :  "  I 
cannot  but  notice  how  frequent  the  disposition  is, 
when  retrenchment  of  expenditure  must  be  made,  to 
commence  with  hospital  expenditure."  At  the  inquiry, 
L)r.  Shier  was  asked  whether  he  had  ever  heard  that 
the  expression  was  a  common  one,  "  Hospital  ex- 
penses must  be  kept  down."     In  answering  No,  the 

¥ 


290  THE  COOLIE. 

Commissioners  say:  "  He  omitted  to  tell  us  that  prac- 
tically he  had  found  they  were  the  first  to  be  curtailed, 
"We  find  here  the  disposition,  when  retrenchments  are 
required,  to  commence  with  the  hospital ;  and  that, 
until  emlDarrassed  circumstances  can  be  tided  over,  the 
comforts  and  conveniences  of  the  immigrant  are  post- 
poned to  the  conveniences  of  the  proprietors — a  state 
of  things  that  certainly  ought  not  to  be  allowed.  As 
soon  as  an  estate  gets  into  such  straitened  circum- 
stances as  to  prevent  the  proprietor  fulfilling  all  the 
requirements  of  the  law  towards  the  immigrant,  the 
latter  ought  to  be  removed." 

As  to  the  bath,  that  luxury  is  mythical  in  most 
cases.  "  The  hospital  being  built  generally  on  raised 
pillars,  a  bay  underneath  is  enclosed,  and  said  to 
serve  as  a  bath-room."  At  other  times  the  *'  bath- 
room "  is  the  passage  leading  to  the  privies,  as  at 
Nonpareil,  or  part  of  the  privy  itself,  as  at  Phila- 
delphia. "  At  Enmore  there  is  a  bath  well  worthy 
of  imitation,  built  for  the  purpose  under  the  hos- 
pital, with  a  supply  of  water  laid  on,  and  there  is 
a  good  bath-room  at  Vergenoegen.  As  to  the  baths, 
we  hear  of  "  a  splendid  tin  bath  "  on  one  estate,  "  a 
bath  14  inches  in  diameter"  on  another;  sometimes  a 
bath  without  a  bath-room,  at  other  times  a  bath-room 
without  a  bath.  This  extract  may  conclude  my  notice 
of  this  luxury :  "  At  Farm,  East  Bank,  Demerara 
River,  and  in  many  others,  the  bath-room  and  dead- 
house  were  the  same ;  and  at  Goldstone  Hall  the 
nurse  hit  upon  a  happy  expedient  by  which  to  show 
us  a  bath  and  a  bath-room.  There  were  three  neces- 
saries attached  to  that  hospital ;  and  in  the  middle 
of  one  of  these  he  put  a  tub,  too  large  to  stand  upon 
the  floor,  upon  the  seats,  but  failed  to  explain  how  it 
could  be  used." 

The  necessaries  seem  not  to  have  been  so  con- 
sidered in  some  hospitals;  or,  to  adopt  another  name, 
the  conveniences  were  frequently  inconveniences.     I 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  291 

need  say  no  more  on  this  subject,  except  that  the 
Report  speaks  with  approbation  of  a  method  of 
deodorisation  used  in  the  well-conducted  hospital  at 
Leonora. 

The  bed  furniture  seems,  in  many  cases,  to  con- 
form inadequately  to  the  requisitions  of  the  law. 
The  sacks  of  plantain  leaves  for  beds  are  easily 
supplied,  but  sheets  and  blankets  are  a  luxury — 
that  is  absent  in  some  of  the  best  hospitals.  It 
appears  to  be  the  custom  to  give  them  only  to  patients 
suffering  with  fever.  Though  they  are  required  by 
law,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they  would  always 
be  appreciated,  if  supplied.  Shirts  are  not  required 
by  the  regulations,  though  they  are  by  decency ;  on 
several  estates  the  inspector  reporting  that  he  found 
the  patients  on  his  visit  in  a  state  of  nudity.  The 
unexpected  visits  of  the  Commissioners  gave  rise  to 
curious  scenes:  "Sometimes  we  found  patients  sitting 
on  the  shirts  which  had  just  been  given  to  them;  and, 
as  at  Goldstone  Hall,  we  found  the  female  nurse  had 
hurt  a  patient  in  dressing  her  in  her  shirt,  putting 
her  bed  to  rights,  and  removing  her  dirty  clothes. 
At  Windsor  Forest  we  found  them  in  all  the  turmoil 
of  making  things  straight,  and  throwing  the  shirts  at 
the  patients  for  them  to  put  on."  One  case,  occurring 
on  one  of  the  estates  of  the  largest  proprietors  in  the 
colony,  is  thus  minuted  in  the  Report  (p.  743)  :  "  Dr. 
Shier  found  the  hospital  in  a  most  unsatisfactory 
state.  Almost  all  the  patients  were  crowded  into  the 
ward  in  the  second  story.  To  make  matters  still 
worse,  the  sick-nurse  had  a  considerable  number  of 
fowls  in  a  coop  in  one  of  the  corners.  *  Everything 
was  in  a  very  filthy  condition.  The  patients,  ttvoity- 
tivo  of  whom  were  labouring  titidcr  i)if(:rniitle)tt  f every 
were  in  a  state  of  nudity.  In  the  ward  up-stairs, 
where  there  were  two  patients,  the  under-nurse,  a 
grandson  of  the  head-nurse,  had  the  harness  of  a 
horse  and  the  cushions  of  a  waggon  stowed  away  in 


292  THE  COOLIE. 

one  of  the  beds.  I  have  seldom  met  a  more  unsatis- 
factory state  of  things.  I  am  fully  of  opinion  that  the 
present  nurse  is  not  to  be  trusted;  she  is  also  of  an 
unwieldly  bulk,  and  although  she  might  do  the  work 
of  an  under-nurse,  she  is  unfit  to  be  at  the  head  of  a 
hospital.'" 

As  to  the  utensils,  the  Commissioners  say  that  this 
requirement  is  not  more  strictly  observed  than  any  of 
the  others. 

Diet  in  the  hospitals  was  the  burthen  of  many  a 
complaint.  The  diet-lists  are  elaborate  enough,  but 
it  is  doubtful  whether  a  single  hospital  in  the  colony 
professes  to  follow  them.  Whatever  else  the  Coolie 
may  be  called  on  to  endure  in  hospital,  this  is  the 
least  pardonable  of  defaults.  The  dietary  table  con- 
sists of  four  kinds  of  diet — ordinary.  Coolie,  spoon, 
and  milk  diet. 

Ordinary  Diet. 

Bread    .  .  .     8oz. 

Salt  fish.  .  .     8oz. 

Butter     .  .  .     loz.,  or  pork  20z. 

Plantains  .  .  240Z.,  cooked  and  without  husks. 

Sugar     .  .  .     20Z. 

In  lieu  of  salt  fish  8  oz.  of  fresh  beef,  or  4  oz.  of  salt  beef  may  be  sub- 
stituted. 

Coolie  Diet. 

Rice    ....  80Z. 

Salt  fish    ,     .     .  40Z. 

Peas     ....  40Z. 

Butter  ....  loz.,  or  pork  20Z. 

Curry  powder    .  i  drachm. 

Bread  or  biscuit  8oz. 

Sugar  ....  20Z. 

Spoon  Diet. 

Bread 40Z. 

Sago  or  arrowroot.     .     40Z. 
Sugar 40Z. 

AIiLK  Diet. 
Spoon  diet  with  i  pint  of  fresh  milk. 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  293 

A  proprietor  who  had  observed  some  reflections  of 
mine  on  the  hospital  treatment  requested  me  to  con- 
sider whether  I  could  expect  butter  to  be  given  to 
Coolies,  knowing  as  I  did  how  expensive  it  was  ; 
and  he  was  particularly  animated  against  curry 
powder.  Now  either  these  things  are  proper  and 
necessary,  or  they  are  not.  If  they  are  not,  the  sooner 
they  are  expunged  from  the  list  the  better ;  if  they 
are,  that  *'  firm  hand  "  which  with  a  sort  of  infatuated 
and  ghostly  persistency  Dr.  Shier  was  always  holding 
up  in  a  threatening  attitude  should  be  laid  down 
sternly.  The  Executive  cannot  afford  to  excuse  any 
looseness  whatever  in  the  diet  of  sick  Coolies — suffer- 
ing, perhaps,  from  general  lowering  of  the  system. 
The  instances  of  this  deficiency  which  the  Report  sup- 
plies are  many  and  glaring.  On  one  estate  only  rice 
and  salt  fish  were  given  when  *'  Coolie  diet "  was  or- 
dered ;  on  another  two  biscuits  were  added  to  those 
two  articles,  the  rest  omitted,  and  short  weight  given  ; 
on  another  no  bread  or  biscuit  issued  in  the  dietary  ;  on 
another  no  pork  or  butter ;  on  another  no  peas ;  on 
many  others  short  weights,  or  issues  by  measure 
insteadof  by  weight ;  on  other  estates  half  rations!  In 
fact,  there  is  evidence  of  the  utmost,  and  I  regret  to 
add  the  cruellest,  disregard  of  the  obligation — one 
not  only  of  contract,  but  of  humanity.  It  occurs  not 
alone  on  poor  estates,  but  on  some  of  the  best,  with 
managers  whose  names  are  household  words,  and 
with  attorneys  at  the  top  of  the  tree. 

At  Providence  the  sick-nurse  withheld  a  portion 
of  bread  from  patients  for  disorderly  conduct  and 
neglecting  their  sores.*  This  sick-nurse  had  been 
eight  years  in  the  hospital. 

At  CuUen,  "  upon  examining  the  books,  the  Com- 
missioners found  during  the  past  summer  repeated 
entries  by  the  doctor,  complaining  that  the  patients 

•     669. 


294  THE  COOLIE. 

were  not  properly  fed,  that  the  orders  he  gave  were 
not  carried  out,  and  that  men  7vere  sinking  from  insiif^ 
ficioii  and  improper  nourishuicnf.  Some  of  these  cases 
were  since  dead.  One  child  was  brought  to  the 
hospital  so  ill  from  sores,  that  the  doctor  recom- 
mended the  prosecution  of  the  black  woman,  Bella 
Roberts,  who  had  charge  of  the  babies.  Perbucus 
complained  that  he  got  only  one  biscuit  this  morning 
and  a  third  of  a  pan  of  rice  by  way  of  Coolie  diet. 
The  dispenser  explained  that  all  provisions  are  served 
out  from  the  manager's  house  by  his  own  house- 
keeper :  biscuits  were  only  sent  in  this  morning  in 
sufficient  quantity  to  give  one  all  round."  No  wonder 
"  the  patients  actually  complained  of  hunger." 

Rations  generally  are  not  issued  by  weight.  "At 
De  Kinderen" — one  of  the  finest  estates  in  the  colony, 
whereof  Mr.  Trotman,  J. P.,  &c.,  is  resident  proprietor, 
with  a  difference  of  twenty-four  hours  in  their  visit, 
the  balances  would  have  been  found  wanting  by  the 
Commissioners  —  "a  balance-scale  had  been  pro- 
cured the  day  before." 

"  At  Cotton  Tree  we  found  a  candidate  for  admis- 
sion fasting  until  the  doctor  came.  He  had  fasted 
for  tzventy-four  hours  at  the  least,  and  might  have  starved 
for  eighteen  more.  It  is  stated  that  the  sick-nurse  was 
discharged  for  this." 

If  this  portion  of  the  Commissioners'  Report 
awakens  indignation  throughout  England,  the 
planters  of  British  Guiana  ought  not  to  be  surprised. 
It  conclusively  shows  that  the  gross  cruelty  of  neglect 
and  of  defrauding  of  his  rights  a  helpless  bondman 
may  be  laid  at  the  door  of  not  a  few  wealthy  persons. 
It  proves  a  dangerous  demoralisation  among  the 
doctors,  by  whom  these  things  cannot  but  have  been 
known  or  suspected.  Last,  and  worst  of  all,  it  shows 
a  widespread  indifference  to  the  obligations  of  the 
Immigration  Laws,  and  a  paralysis  in  the  Executive 


MEDICAL  INSPECTOR,  ETC.  295 

which  ought  to  enforce  them.  If  such  important  pro- 
visions break  down,  what  are  we  to  hope  for  the  rest  ? 
There  is  an  indignant  ring  in  the  Commissioners' 
conclusion  on  this  point  with  which  I  will  close  a 
very  painful  subject  :* — 

"  We  have  been  informed  by  several  managers,  such 
as  Mr.  Russell  (Quest.  5399),  that  he  does  not  observe 
the  diet  tables,  but  if  he  sees  a  patient,  who  he  thinks 
requires  feeding  up,  he  orders  him  food,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  doctor,  or  the  tables,  and  this,  we  have  no 
doubt,  he  does ;  but  no  traces  of  such  orders  are 
readily  to  be  found  in  the  hospital  accounts,  unless 
they  be  kept  with  scrupulous  exactness,  as  at  Goed- 
verwagting,  and  on  that  account  more  exact  records 
than  are  now  kept  of  the  diet  ordered  and  issued, 
should  be  insisted  on  in  justice  to  all  persons  interested. 

"  Yet,  in  all  this,  we  cannot  but  observe  a  great 
recklessness,  on  the  part  of  the  managers  of  estates, 
to  the  consequences  which  must  follow  the  repudiation 
of  rule,  and  the  substitution  of  private  judgment, 
however  well  meaning.  To  take  an  instance  from 
another  part  of  our  inquiry — that  a  man  in  Mr. 
Russell's  position  could  say  in  evidence,  in  answer  to 
a  question  if  he  could  show  the  section  which  would 
justify  a  particular  course  :  *No,  I  cannot;  I  go  more 
by  long  experience.  Probably,  I  know  what  suits  me 
better  than  the  law-makers,'  points  to  a  fashion  of 
thinking  which  would  leave  little  hope  of  the  reform 
of  abuses,  if  it  were  not  that  those  in  authority  seem 
not  yet  to  have  set  seriously  at  work  to  try  and  relorm 
them.  To  many  managers,  no  doubt,  the  prescription 
of  'curry  stuff'  seems  a  piece  of  sentimental  philan- 
thropy on  the  part  of  the  framers  of  the  circular. 
They  would  not  like  themselves  to  eat  nothing  but 
boiled  rice  and  salt  fish  one  day,  and  boiled  rice  and 
peas,  without  salt,  the  next;  but  they  know  many 
*  Report,  &c.,  U  73°— 733- 


296  THE  COOLIE. 

Coolies  get  no  more,  and  they  don't  see  how  any  sucn 
condiments  can  be  necessary  for  health — at  least  to 
Coolies.  Still  less  do  they  appreciate  the  sense  of 
wrong,  the  feeling  of  being  trampled  on,  which  fills 
the  mind  even  of  a  Coolie,  when  deprived,  not  so 
much  of  some  of  his  rice,  as  of  some  of  his  rights. 

"  It  is  out  of  the  question  to  plead  that  the  diet  tables 
are  extravagantly  costly ;  8^.  a  day  seems  the  outside 
that  is  spent  on  any  one  of  them  ;  and  the  cutting  off 
a  bit  of  pork  here,  and  a  biscuit  there,  is  at  once 
mean  and  of  little  profit,  and  detrimental,  because  it 
breeds  discontent. 

"  It  is  hard,  no  doubt,  to  have  to  deal  w4th  people 
who  do  not  possess  the  fine  habit  of  gratitude  which 
bestows  itself,  even  upon  those  who  take  some  pains 
to  give  us  no  more  than  our  right, — who  are,  indeed, 
not  a  grateful  race,  even  when  something  more  is 
given  them ;  but  until  some  considerable  pains  has 
been  taken,  not  merely  to  concede  the  right,  but  to 
see  that  it  is  respected,  managers  have  no  right  to 
say,  as  they  do  say,  that  the  Coolies  have  no  capacity 
for  being  grateful.  This  does  require  some  pains  ; 
and  does  not  often  get  them  paid.  Perhaps  it  is 
impossible  to  expect  them  of  managers,  or  at  all 
events  it  may  be  ;  the  task  would  more  fitly  devolve 
upon  other,  and  less  burthened,  shoulders  " 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

MORAL  AND  MATERIAL  WELFARE,  AND   CONCLUSION. 

TO  complete  our  review  of  the  Coolie's  position  in 
British  Guiana,  we  must  take  a  glance  at  its 
bright  side  and  its  hopeful  circumstances.  For  in 
my  opinion  the  system  has  broad  shoulders,  and  if  the 
criticisms  advanced  in  the  preceding  pages  should 
appear  to  any  whose  interests  are  involved  dis- 
proportionately great,  or  in  some  instances  severe, 
that,  they  should  remember,  is  almost  an  inherent 
difficulty  of  criticism,  one  only  to  be  neutralised  by 
duly  calling  up  to  the  mind  the  extent  of  counter- 
vailing matter  that  has  afforded  basis  for  so  much 
remark. 

Any  one  who  has  seen  the  Coolie  in  British  Guiana 
is  forced  to  admit  that  he  has  undergone  a  change 
for  the  better.  The  fawning  and  crouching  gait  of 
the  Asiatic  has  been  transformed  into  the  inde- 
pendent, and  even  proud,  walk  of  a  better  race.  Men 
of  low  caste  and  lower  hopes  have  acquired  what  to 
them  is  wealth  ;  and  many  have  improved  in  every 
way  under  the  discipline  of  labour. 

There  is  now,  I  should  judge,  a  most  hopeful  field 
for  education.  The  number  of  schools  is  as  yet  inade- 
quate to  the  requirements  of  the  colony ;  but  two 
Indian  gentlemen — one  a  clergyman  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  the  other  a  Wesleyan — appear  to  be  taking 


298  THE  COOLIE. 

great  interest  in  remedying  this  defect,  as  well  as 
in  endeavouring  to  disseminate  Christianity  among 
people  situated,  one  would  think,  in  peculiarly 
favourable  circum.stances  to  receive  it.  But  as  yet 
missionary  effort  has  made  no  impression.  It  is 
possible  that  were  the  managers  and  overseers  more 
frequently  married,  and  were  they  and  their  wives 
imbued  with  religious  sentiments,  the  powerful  in- 
fluence they  could  then  bring  to  bear  on  their  immi- 
grants would  result  in  a  considerable  conversion  to 
Christianity.  Tropical  Christianity  is,  however,  a 
plant  of  curious  and  difficult  growth. 

*  "  The  defenders  of  the  Asiatic  immigration  to 
the  West  Indies  have  always  been  careful  to  point 
out,  besides  the  material  advantages  offered  to  the 
immigrant,  the  prospect  of  moral  improvement  opened 
to  the  race.  It  has  been  held  up  as  a  means  of 
carrying  Western  civilisation,  and  even  Western 
faith,  to  the  nations  of  India  and  China.  No  doubt 
the  planting  of  an  Asiatic  population  in  the  West 
Indies,  if  it  lives  and  takes  root  there,  cannot  be 
without  important  influence  upon  the  habits  and 
characters  of  those  who  are  transplanted,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  that  with  the  means  of  material 
advancement  fairly  opened  to  them,  moral  progress 
may  be  expected  to  follow  in  its  train. 

"  For  the  present  this  great  experiment  in  colonisa- 
tion is  merely  in  embryo.  The  Coolie  and  the  Chinese 
population  has  only  to  a  small  extent  taken  root  in 
the  soil.  Little  or  no  familiar  intercourse  has  sprung 
up  between  them  and  the  European  and  African 
races,  and  there  is  hardly  any  intermixture  of  blood 
It  is  not  surprising  therefore  that  to  all  outward  ap- 
pearance the  Coolies  are  as  much  East  Indian,  and 
the  Chinamen  Chinese,  as  when  they  first  landed  in 
the  colony.  They  acquire  after  some  years  the  use  of 
*  Report,  &c.,  H  896,  897. 


i 


CONCLUSION.  299 

an  English  patois,  more  or  less  intellig-ible.  They 
shake  off,  no  doubt,  a  good  many  prejudices,  and  be- 
come more  sensible  than  when  in  their  own  country 
of  the  world  of  ideas  which  lies  without  them.  All 
that  we  may  say,  however,  of  their  acquirements  in 
the  direction  of  European  cultivation  is,  that  they 
show  a  readiness,  in  small  matters  of  dress  and  habit, 
to  engraft  other  fashions  upon  their  old  Oriental  ones." 

A  mere  sight  of  the  Coolies,  as  I  have  described 
them,  in  Georgetown  streets,  on  my  first  arrival,  shows 
that  in  material  prosperity  a  large  number  have  bene- 
fited by  their  introduction  into  the  colony.  Many  of 
them  invest  their  bounty-money  in  a  cow,  and  from 
its  milk  continue  to  increase  their  wealth  until  they 
can  buy  another.  Some  own  as  many  as  six  or  seven. 
Others  drive  a  less  healthy  but  more  profitable  busi- 
ness in  lending  out  their  money  on  usury  to  the  new 
Coolies,  who  before  they  are  acclimatised  can  rarely 
earn  enough  to  live  upon.  One  sharp  Indian,  who 
took  a  great  interest  in  the  Commission,  and  gave  me 
a  great  deal  of  information,  brought  me  a  list  of  debts 
due  to  him  on  one  estate  amounting,  I  think,  to  nearly 
$1,200.  If  this  was  proof  of  need  it  was  also  proof  of 
well-being,  and  a  considerable  evidence  of  confidence, 
on  the  part  of  my  friend,  in  the  ultimate  power  of  his 
countrymen  to  repay  him.  On  many  estates  the  Coolies 
are  allowed  free  pasturage  for  their  cattle ;  on  others 
— as  at  Leonora — they  are  allowed  to  tether  them  on 
the  ground  near  their  houses,  and  to  cut  grass  upon 
orders  issued  by  the  manager,  which  he  reserves  to 
himself  the  right  to  cancel. 

The  number  of  immigrant  depositors  in  the  British 
Guiana  Savings  Bank  on  June  13th,  1870,  was  1,817, 
and  their  deposits  amounted  to  $138,425.13,  over  .170 
a  head.  The  very  large  amount  of  silver,  and  even 
gold,  worn  on  the  persons  of  the  Coolie  men  and 
women  is  of  course  not  calculable ;  but  it  is  enough 


300  THE  COOLIE. 

to  convey  an  idea  of  a  wide  distribution  of  wealth. 
Much  of  this,  no  doubt,  is  the  mere  product  of  the 
indenture  money,  and  not  very  much  of  it  the  result 
of  regular  earnings,  as  the  rate  of  wages  given  by 
the  Commissioners  indicates  :*  "  From  papers  sub- 
mitted by  the  Immigration  Agent-General  the  Com- 
missioners gather  that  in  the  twelve  ships  which 
sailed  with  returning  Indian  immigrants  between 
the  15th  November,   1834,  and  the   nth   November, 

1869,  2,828  immigrants  took  away  with  them  money 
acquired  in  the  colony  to  the  amount  of  $453,369.70, 
or  ;^94,45  2  o^.  5^.  The  whole  number  who  have 
returned  is  6,281  ;  but  the  money  of  those  who  went 
by  five  ships  out  of  twenty  was  not  officially  remitted, 
and  cannot  now  be  ascertained.  The  return  of  the 
Emigration  Commissioners  for  1870,  which  includes 
some  items  estimated  rather  than  ascertained,  gives 
a  total  of  ;^  1 1 6,473  i?-^'  6^.  It  seems  of  little  use 
to  calculate  averages  in  this  connection,  or  to  guess 
at  the  amount  of  cash  and  value  of  jewellery  on  their 
persons,  which  the  immigrants  very  carefully  conceal. 
The  number  of  those  who  go  back  is  but  a  very 
small  portion  of  those  who  come,  and  no  attempt  has 
hitherto  been  made  to  discover  whether  the  method 
by  which  the  well-to-do  among  them  have  made  their 
money  was  one  equally  open  to  the  majority  of  their 
compatriots. 

"To  the  above  estimate  must  be  added 42 1  passengers 
who  embarked  by  the  Ganges  on  the  loth  September, 

1870,  carrying  with  them  through  official  channels 
$47,438.95.  This  convoy  we  had  an  opportunity  of 
inspecting  before  they  set  sail.  There  was  one  man, 
aged  thirty-nine,  with  his  wife  and  three  children,  all 
born  in  the  colony,  who  took  back  $1,100  of  his  own, 
and  $200  in  the  name  of  his  wife.  Another,  with  wife 
and  two  children,  took  $1,000.     It  seemed  to  be  the 

*  H  859,  860. 


CONCLUSION.  301 

fathers  of  families  who  had  thriven  best ;  but  we  did 
not  succeed  in  finding  any  one  who  had  not  (?)  made  a 
large  sum  of  money  without  having  lived  for  some 
time  in  the  colony  as  a  free  labourer.  In  particular, 
we  noticed  each  of  the  two  families  above  mentioned 
as  having  come  from  Berbice,  where  they  had  been 
engaged  in  cattle  farming.  A  third,  returning  with 
his  wnfe,  and  with  the  reputation  of  being  rich,  took 
with  him  officially  $800.  He,  however,  had  come  out 
but  eighteen  months  before,  was  paying  his  own 
passage  back,  and  had  made  his  money  in  the  interval 
by  begging,  in  his  character  of  a  Brahmin." 

According  to  the  planters'  returns,  the  amount  paid 
to  the  immigrant  Chinese  and  Indians  last  year 
amounted  to  more  than  $2,000,000. 

Taking  a  fair  review  of  the  whole  system,  //  t's  one 
which,  spite  of  its  disabilities,  its  difficulties,  its  present 
evils,  is  full  of  promise,  and  in  my  belief  can  be  made, 
"with  care  and  skill  and  honest  endeavour,  not  only  a?i 
organisation  of  labour  as  successful  as  any  hitherto 
attempted,  but  one  leading  to  almost  colossal  benefits. 

In  considering  the  general  relation  to  each  other  of 
the  Coolies  and  planters  in  British  Guiana,  it  is  clear 
that  for  the  permanent  benefit  and  community  of  both, 
the  policy  of  the  Colonial  legislation  must  needs  be 
considerably  altered.  It  has  hitherto  been  a  policy  of 
coercion  where  only  a  policy  of  broad  and  liberal 
kindness  can  succeed,  or  indeed  be  admissible.  It 
has  conferred  unlimited  power  on  the  planters,  and 
reduced  that  of  the  Coolies  almost  to  nil.  When 
pressur^  becomes  so  tight,  its  natural  effect  is  seen 
in  Leonora  riots  and  murders  or  half-murders  of 
managers.  The  legislation  of  the  future  needs  to  be 
largely  in  the  direction  of  facilitating  the  Coolie's 
own  remedies,  and  of  increasing  the  protection  to  be 
afforded  to  him  by  his  appointed  guardians.  By 
assenting  to  this,  the  planters  can  lose  nothing  but 


302  THE  COOLIE. 

money,  if  they  even  lose  that,  while  they  will  gain  in 
self-respect  and  in  the  greater  happiness  of  their 
workpeople.  Under  any  circumstances,  England 
cannot  be  forgetful  of  her  duty  to  her  ignorant  and  un- 
protected Indian  subjects.  The  more  firm  and  manly 
our  voice  on  the  question  now,  the  better  will  our 
purpose  be  appreciated  by  the  planters,  and  in  my 
heart  I  believe  the  better  chance  will  there  be  of  a 
kindly  settlement.  If  we  can  avoid  putting  the  whole 
system  on  its  defence  while  we  indicate  and  strive  to 
remedy  its  blots,  we  shall  find,  as  I  can  vouch  from 
my  own  knowledge,  among  the  most  powerful  planters 
not  only  friendly  but  earnest  allies. 

Another  point  of  great  importance  calls  for  our 
constant  attention.  It  should  be  carefully  borne  in 
mind  that  Coolie  immigration  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  especially  in  British  Guiana,  is  in  a  state  of 
transition.  The  supply  of  labour  is  gradually  creep- 
ing up  to  the  point  at  which  it  will  meet  the  demand, 
and  a  wise  forecast  dictates  that  it  should  never  be 
allowed  actually  to  reach,  certainly  iiever  to  overlap, 
that  line.  At  the  present  moment  a  fall  of  one  half- 
penny a  pound  in  sugar  would  on  many  estates  make 
the  difference  between  a  large  profit  and  a  dead  loss  ; 
a  fall  of  one  penny  a  pound  would,  according  to  Mr. 
Oliver,  make  the  best  estate  in  the  colony  lose  money. 
Greater  fluctuations,  or  a  protracted  fall — things 
which  are  not  impossible,  especially  if  beet-root  culti- 
vation should  be  introduced,  as  it  is  likely  to  be,  into 
Ireland — might  severely  test  the  ability  of  the  plant- 
ing community  to  carry  the  enormous  artificial  burthen 
of  the  labour  it  has  imposed  upon  itself.  The  failure 
of  a  few  large  estates  in  British  Guiana  would  give 
the  Government  no  easy  problem  to  solve,  since  it  is 
scarcely  probable  that  at  the  same  time  an  expansion 
would  be  occurring  on  other  estates,  sufficient  to 
absorb  the  numbers  thus  thrown  back  on  the  hands  of 


CONCLUSION.  303 

the  Executive.  To  this  contingency  our  own  Govern- 
ment is  bound  to  look  forward  with  a  very  jealous 
regard.  There  is  danger  that  speculators,  in  the  pur- 
suit of  profits,  may  not  have  their  eyes  open  to  the 
results  of  failure.  An  inordinate  immigration,  causing 
an  inflation,  at  any  time  liable  to  collapse,  would,  on 
that  collapse,  be  least  damaging  to  the  speculator ;  it 
would  throw  the  Coolie  on  the  tender  mercies  of 
Government.  The  tender  mercies  of  Government  are 
often  like  those  of  the  wicked.  At  present  there  is  a 
temptation,  natural  and  not  easily  reprehensible, 
to  the  planters  to  forget  the  future,  and  to  look  only 
to  the  smooth-sailing  success  of  the  present.  But, 
if  Coolie  immigration  is  to  continue,  they  must 
lay  now  the  foundations  of  its  permanence.  It 
cannot  remain  permanent  on  its  present  basis.  The 
artificial  immigration  must  gradually  give  way  to  a 
system  more  and  more  natural,  as  the  reasons  for  its 
artificiality  cease  to  exist.  We  should  look  forward 
to  the  time  when  immigrants  shall  leave  India  for 
British  Guiana,  if  at  all,  on  a  freer  engagement,  and 
when  a  large  proportion  of  those  who  immigrate 
shall  establish  themselves  in  the  colony,  and  build 
up  a  new  system  of  labour.  The  planters  are  just 
now  content  if  they  get  ten  years'  service  out  of  a 
man,  and  send  him  home  again.  But  the  proportion  of 
those  who  return  to  the  numbers  arriving  must  yearly 
become  less  ;  and  to  meet  the  consequent  state  of  the 
labour  market  both  restraint  and  forecast  will  be 
required.  At  this  moment,  for  instance,  there  is  an 
indisposition  on  the  part  of  the  Executive  to  encourage 
the  settlement  of  Coolies  on  land.  The  planters, 
eager  to  make  their  money,  and  to  go  elsewhere  to 
spend  it  (one  can  hardly  blame  them  for  it),*  are 
jealous  of  establishing  a  system  which,  however 
politic  for  the  time  to  come,  appears  at  present  to 
*  See  pp.  182  and  183  on  this  question. 


30+  THE  COOLIE. 

be  restricting  the  numbers  of  cheap  labourers.  Or.ly 
the  strong  resolution  of  the  Home  Government  can 
regulate  this  movement ;  one  which  alone  will  place 
the  future  of  the  Coolie  in  Guiana  on  a  safe  footing. 
It  is  possible  it  might  for  the  time  put  a  check  on 
the  rapid  extension  of  cultivation  ;  but  the  check 
would  be  a  healthy  check,  and  in  the  long-run  lead 
to  the  best  results  for  every  one  concerned. 

In  taking  leave  of  my  subject  and  the  reader,  it 
only  remains  to  me  to  hope  that  my  endeavour  to 
strike  the  even  balance  between  truth  and  right  has 
not  been  unsuccessful.  I  have  spoken  freely.  Should 
I,  in  the  course  of  a  review  of  such  numerous  and 
complicated  incidents,  relations,  and  interests,  have 
unconsciously  done  injustice  to  any  person,  or  to 
any  portion  of  the  subject,  it  will  cause  me  a  very 
deep  and  lasting  regret. 


APPENDIX 


307 


APPENDIX  A. 
MR.  DES  VCEUX'S   LETTER, 


Government  House,  St.  Lucia, 
25//?  December,   1869. 

MY  LORD, — I  have  long  had  the  intention,  which  I  have 
been  prevented  by  various  causes  and  lately  by  the  pressure 
of  other  public  duties  from  carrying  out,  of  drawing  your  Lord- 
ship's attention  to  the  state  of  the  Colony  of  British  Guiana, 
where  I  was  lately  holding  the  appointment  of  stipendiary 
magistrate  when  your  Lordship  graciously  acceded  to  my 
application  for  promotion. 

2.  But  in  view  of  the  serious  disturbances  which  lately  took 
place  at  plantation  Leonora,  and  the  more  recent  meeting  of 
West  Indian  proprietors  in  London,  which  has  shown  that, 
while  alive  to  the  unsettled  state  of  the  colony,  and  anxious 
of  obviating  its  effects,  they  are  either  unaware  of,  or  are 
regardless  of  removing,  its  causes,  I  felt  that  I  should  no  longer 
delay  the  performance  of  what  I  conscientiously  believe  an 
obligatory  duty. 

3.  Knowing  as  I  do  that  there  is  a  very  wide-spread  dis- 
content and  dissatisfaction  existing  throughout  the  immigrant 
population,  both  Indians  and  Chinese  (and  especially  among 
the  latter,  though  their  small  numbers  make  the  fact  less 
apparent),  and  believing  as  I  do  that  these  ill  feelings, 
which  have  already  vented  themselves  in  disturbance,  will  ere 
long,  unless  checked  by  remedial  measures,  result  in  far  more 
serious  calamities,  and  believing  also  that  my  five  years' 
peculiar  experience  in  the  colony  enables  me  to  throw  a  light 


3o8  APPENDIX. 

on  the  causes  of  grievance,  which  may  not  reach  your  Lordship 
from  any  other  source,  and  may  be  useful  at  the  present 
moment,  I  trust  that  I  need  no  other  apology  for  communi- 
cating with  you  on  a  subject  unconnected  with  my  present 
duties. 

4.  If  your  Lordship  should  approve,  I  would  in  a  future 
letter  explain  the  peculiar  grievances  of  which  the  Chinese  have 
to  complain,  and  which  I  believe  to  be  so  real  and  just  as  to 
furnish  a  strong  argument  against  a  renewal  of  that  description 
of  immigration,  unless  under  far  more  stringent  supervision. 
At  present  I  propose  to  confine  myself  to  those  suffered  by  all 
classes  of  immigrants  alike. 

5.  To  superficial  obser\'ation  it  would  seem,  that  persons  who 
have  been  rescued  from  a  state  said  to  be  bordering  on  desti- 
tution in  their  own  country,  who  are  provided  with  free  house- 
room,  regular  work  and  wages  when  they  are  in  health,  and  in 
sickness  have  the  advantages  of  a  hospital,  the  attendance  of  a 
medical  man  and  medicines  free  of  expense,  who  have  more- 
over a  magistrate  always  at  hand  to  hear  their  complaints,  and 
a  department  of  officers  with  the  especial  duty  of  securing  their 
good  treatment,  can  have  no  ground  for  dissatisfaction.  A 
closer  scrutiny,  however,  would  detract  much  from  the  apparent 
value  of  these  advantages,  and  would  show  that  some  of  them 
at  least  are  more  nominal  than  real. 

6.  I  propose  to  point  out  that  each  of  them  is  in  fact  a 
separate  cause  of  discontent,  and  in  each  case  most  respectfully 
to  suggest  what  appear  to  me  the  best  remedial  measures. 

7.  And,  first,  as  to  the  medical  men  who  attend  estates. 
These  gentlemen  have  the  right  to  retain  as  patients  in  hospital 
all  sick  immigrants,  and  to  order  for  them  at  the  estate's  expense 
nourishing  food  and  medicine.  It  would  be  thought  that 
managers  would  always  see  their  advantage  in  providing  these 
of  good  quality.  I  fear,  however,  that  there  are  many  who  are 
not  sufficiently  enlightened  to  take  tliis  view,  and  I  have  strong 
reason  for  believing  that  on  some  estates  the  food  at  least 
usually  provided  in  hospital,  in  all  but  the  severer  cases,  is  of  a 
wretched  description,  and  that  this  fact  is  well  known  to  the 
medical  men,  who  dare  not  make  complaint. 

8.  I  am,  moreover,  confident  that  it  is  a  common  practice  of 
medical  men  to  discharge  immigrants  from  treatment  before 


APPENDIX.  309 

they  are  completely  cured  ;  and  to  this  may  be  attributed  a 
large  proportion  of  the  cases  of  so-called  idleness  which  are 
brought  before  magistrates.  By  the  strict  letter  of  the  law,  an 
indentured  immigrant  is  bound  to  do  his  daily  task  of  work,  it 
he  is  not  in  hospital  ;  and  though  the  magistrate  has  a  dis- 
cretionary power  of  declining  to  convict,  if  he  believes  the 
accused  is  physically  unable  to  work,  it  is  difficult  for  him,  on 
account  of  the  accomplished  malingering  propensities  of  the 
Coolies,  to  decide  in  other  than  extreme  cases  against  the 
expressed  opinion  of  the  doctor. 

9.  The  consequence  of  this  I  believe  is,  that  of  the  great 
numbers  of  immigrants  who  are  weekly  committed  to  gaol  for 
breaches  of  contract,  a  very  considerable  proportion  are  con- 
victed of  neglect  to  do  what  they  were  physically  incapable  of 
doing  ;  and  whether  my  belief  is  just  or  not,  I  know  that  a  sense 
of  the  injustice  of  such  convictions  is  a  very  potent  cause  of  the 
prevailing  discontent. 

10.  The  remedy  which  I  would  most  respectfully  suggest  for 
this  serious  evil,  and  which  I  have  urged  without  success  on 
more  than  one  Governor,  is  simple. 

11.  It  is  to  make  the  estates'  medical  men  Government 
officers,  payable  either  out  of  the  Immigration  Fund,  or  by  a 
tax  directly  levied  for  this  purpose  on  the  proprietors. 

12.  At  present  their  tenure  of  office  is  almost  entirely 
dependent  on  the  will,  or  rather  the  caprice,  of  the  managers 
of  estates.  Several  of  the  most  upright  of  them  have  at 
different  times  deplored  to  me  their  position  in  this  respect ; 
and  have  shown  me  that  any  serious  complaint  on  their 
part  in  respect  of  abuses  which  they  saw  going  on  under 
their  eyes  would  only  be  followed  by  the  loss  of  their  liveli- 
hood, and  the  instalment  in  their  practice  of  less  scrupulous 
practitioners. 

13.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  few  are  to  be  found 
sufficiently  high-minded,  especially  when  they  have  families 
dependent  upon  them,  to  adopt  so  dangerous  a  course.  One, 
however,  to  my  knowledge,  did  so,  and  he  has  in  consequence, 
though  known  to  be  of  great  skill  and  ability  in  his  profession, 
obtained  but  a  very  small  practice,  while  estates  almost  at  his 
door  were  entrusted  to  a  person  who  is  notoriously  incompetent. 

14.  1  could  mention  several  startling  instances  from  my  own 


310  APPENDIX, 

observation  of  the  evils  attending  this  dependence  of  medical 
men.  But  two  of  more  than  ordinary  gravity  your  Lordship 
will  probably  deem  suflicient  for  my  purpose. 

15.  (i.)  A  Chinese  immigrant  had  been  dreadfully  beaten 
by  an  Indian  watchman,  while  in  the  act  of  stealing.  He  was 
taken  to  the  estate's  hospital  with  five  fractures  of  limbs — two 
compounds  and  three  simple,  both  legs  and  both  arms  being 
broken,  if  I  recollect  rightly.  His  wounds  were  dressed  by 
the  sick-nurse,  but  the  doctor  on  arrival  ordered  his  removal 
in  a  cart  to  his  own  estate,  a  distance  of  two  and  a  quarter 
miles,  the  very  day  on  which  he  had  received  the  injuries. 
The  natural  result  followed.  The  patient  died  the  next  day. 
On  the  inquest,  held  before  me  as  magistrate  of  the  district, 
the  doctor  justified  his  order  on  the  ground  that  the  man  was 
"  doing  extremely  well "  (if  I  recollect  the  words  rightly)  when 
he  was  removed,  while  another  medical  man,  who  attended  the 
patient  on  his  own  estate,  gave  his  opinion  that  he  would 
probably  have  lived  but  for  his  removal.  I  sent  the  proceed- 
ings in  this  case  to  the  Attorney-General,*  but  no  notice  was 
taken,  as  far  as  I  know,  of  the  doctor's  conduct,  who  sacrificed 
a  life  in  order  to  save  a  trifling  expense  to  his  employer. 

16.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  this  gentleman,  although 
holding  a  lucrative  Government  appointment,  and  having  a 
large  practice  in  town,  is  employed  by  several  large  estates  at 
a  distance  of  several  miles,  and  that  some  of  these  are  sepa- 
rated from  him  by  the  river,  which,  owing  to  the  ferry-boat 
ceasing  to  run,  is  practicably  impassable  at  night,  while  they 
are  within  easy  reach  of  two  equally  competent  but  reputedly 
more  scrupulous  medical  men  residing  on  the  same  bank  of 
the  river. 

17.  (2.)  A  Coolie  boy  about  twelve  years  old,  a  general 
favourite  on  his  estate,  had  been  barbarously  murdered  for  the 
sake  of  the  silver  and  gold  ornaments  on  his  person.  An 
inquest  had  been  held  before  an  ordinary  justice  of  the  peace, 
and  an  open  verdict  returned.  On  reading  the  evidence,  I 
ordered  the  examination  of  the  body  and  a  further /t'j-/  mortem 
examination.  Your  Lordship  will  find  it  difiicult  to  believe, 
but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  it  was  then  for  the  first  time 

•  Mr.  Trounsell  Gilbert,  acting. 


APPENDIX,  311 

discovered  by  the  surgeon  that  one  of  the  boy's  arms  had  been 
cut  off.  The  nature  of  the  first  examination  can  therefore  be 
imagined. 

18.  The  medical  man  who  was  thus  neglectful  of  his  duty 
has  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  best,  estate's  practice  in  the 
colony ;  and  although  resident  in  town,  is  allowed  to  have  the 
sole  medical  charge  of  a  hospital,  which  in  my  time  contained 
frequently  over  eighty  patients,  at  a  distance  of  seven  miles, 
and  several  other  hospitals  at  distances  of  from  four  to  six 
miles,  one  of  them  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  others. 

19.  The  present  Governor  contemplated,  he  informed  me, 
a  reform  of  this  and  similar  abuses,  and  I  can  well  understand 
that  the  heavy  legacy  of  duty  and  difficulty  which  was  left  to 
him  has  prevented  its  speedy  accomplishment. 

20.  These  illustrations  of  the  system  of  medical  attendance 
were  both  derived  from  my  personal  experience  in  one  district. 
From  all  accounts  I  believe  them  to  be  by  no  means  excep- 
tional, and  I  would  remind  your  Lordship  that  there  are  ten 
other  districts  in  the  colony  containing  sugar  estates. 

21.  The  reform  which  I  propose  would  not  only  render  all 
the  medical  men  more  fearless  in  the  performance  of  their 
duty,  but  would  give  even  the  more  conscientious  among  them 
increased  power  of  usefulness.  Their  practice  would  be  con- 
centrated, and  they  would  avoid  the  necessity  which  now 
exists  of  making  visits  at  long  distances,  while  rivals  are  in 
charge  of  hospitals  in  their  immediate  neighbourhood.  The 
change  would  therefore  be  an  equal  boon  to  the  proiession  and 
to  the  immigrants. 

21.*  The  independence  of  the  stipendiary  magistrate  is  of 
even  greater  importance  to  the  immigrants  than  that  of  the 
doctors.  But,  at  present,  these  officers  are  almost  eciually, 
though  not  as  directly,  subject  to  planting  influence ;  and  their 
decisions,  in  consequence,  are,  I  believe,  the  chief  cause  of  the 
prevailing  discontent.  They  have,  for  the  most  part,  risen 
from  inferior  positions,  and  have  been  long  resident  in  the 
colony  before  their  appointment  as  magistrates.  They  have 
thus  insensibly  acquired  that  awe  of  the  powerful  planting 
interest  wliich  more  or  less  pervades  all  classes  and  reaches  to 
the  highest  places. 

22.  Moreover,  while  by  their  antecedents  and  their  educa- 


312  APPENDIX. 

tion  they  are,  as  a  rule,  not  superior,  in  position  and  emolu- 
ments they  are  actually  inferior,  to  the  managers  of  estates 
who  form  their  society,  and  are  the  chief  suitors  in  their  courts. 

23.  Again,  these  latter  are  enabled  by  the  large  resources  at 
the  command  of  the  estates,  in  many  ways  (singly  too  insigni- 
ficant to  describe)  to  soften  the  harsher  features  of  the 
magistrate's  life,  and  have  still  larger  means  of  heaping  upon 
him  trouble  and  annoyance.* 

24.  Your  Lordship  will  readily  understand  that  against  such 
persons  and  in  the  courts  of  such  magistrates  an  immigrant  is 
by  no  means  certain  of  obtaining  his  rights,  and  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  assert,  not  only  from  what  I  have  commonly  heard, 
but  from  personal  observation,  that  they  do  not ;  and  that 
they  are  thus  often  reduced  to  a  position,  which  in  some 
respects  is  not  far  removed  from  slavery.  The  most  trifling 
offences  too  often  subject  them  to  loss  of  wages  and  exorbitant 
fines,  or  the  alternative  of  certain  punishment  in  gaol,  and  they 
are  governed,  not  by  kindness  and  good  treatment,  but  through 
fear  of  the  severity  of  the  law.t 

25.  There  are  some  well-known  managers  who  give  out 
publicly  that  the  immigrants  on  their  estates  shall  be  always, 
during  the  hours  of  work,  either  actually  at  work,  or  in  the 
hospital,  or  in  gaol ;  a  rule  which  can  undoubtedly  be  enforced 
by  the  strict  letter  of  the  law,  but  which,  invariably  and 
rigorously  carried  out,  inflicts  extreme  hardship  in  many  in- 
dividual instances,  especially  in  the  case  of  women  who  are 

*  As  an  illustration  of  the  low  comparative  estimation  in  which  the 
stipendiary  magistrates  are  held  in  Demerara,  I  may  mention  that  they 
are  habitually  known  among  persons  who  claim  to  represent  "education 
and  intelligence "  by  an  opprobrious  nickname  peculiar  to  that  colony. 
The  Government,  moreover,  in  its  public  notices,  assists  in  degrading  their 
position  by  almost  always,  if  not  always,  placing  them  after  "  the  Gentle- 
men in  charge  of  estates."  As  to  the  character  and  social  position  of 
these,  I  would  refer  your  Lordship  to  the  report  to  his  Government  of  a 
highly  educated  and  intelligent  Hungarian  gentleman.  Colonel  Figglemesey, 
who  is  Consul  of  the  United  States ;  a  report  which,  though  made  by  a 
comparative  stranger  in  the  colony,  and  within  a  year  of  his  arrival  (1864), 
confirms  to  a  great  extent  many  of  the  statements  of  this  communication  as 
to  the  condition  of  the  indentured  immigrants. 

t  I  speak  only  of  the  majority  of  the  estates.  There  are  a  very  few 
notable  exceptions,  which,  as  will  be  shown  below,  have  reaped  both 
direct  and  indirect  advantages  from  the  better  treatment  of  their  labouiers. 


APPENDIX.  313 

enceinte*  or  nursing  young  children,  or  when  the  immigrants 
are  weakened  from  the  effects  of  fever  and  iUness,  but  being 
convalescent  are  not  retained  in  the  hospital. 

26.  It  is  commonly  said  that  the  Governor  has  the  power  of 
counteracting  the  influence  of  the  planters  to  a  great  extent  by 
changing  the  districts  of  magistrates  who  have  become  too 
popular  with  them.  But  this  power,  instead  of  checking,  has, 
as  frequently  used,  contributed  in  fact  to  increase  this  influ- 
ence ;  for  it  is  generally  believed,  whether  truly  or  not  I 
forbear  to  express  an  opinion,  that  changes  of  districts,  which 
have  been  ordered  of  late  years,  have  been  brought  about  not 
on  account  of  the  magistrates'  familiarity  Avith  the  planters,  but 
of  their  being  obnoxious  to  them.  Changes,  unless  for  some 
private  reason  specially  asked  for,  are  as  a  rule  dreaded  by 
magistrates,  on  account  of  the  great  expense  wliich  is  neces- 
sarily involved.  Owing  to  difticulties  of  carriage  and,  too 
often,  of  pecuniary  embarrassment,  they  are  obliged  to  sell 
their  furniture  and  effects.  The  price  realised  by  these, 
owing  to  the  persons  in  a  condition  to  purchase  being  mainly 
planters,  is  notoriously  dependent  on  the  popularity  among 
them  of  their  owner. 

27.  So  that  to  avoid  not  only  removal,  but  the  loss  con- 
sequent on  possible  removal,  the  magistrate  has  an  induce- 
ment to  curry  favour  with  the  planters. 

28.  In  order  to  convey  to  your  Lordship  a  real  and  vivid 
illustration  of  what  I  have  above  described,  I  am  reluctantly 
compelled,  from  want  of  other  means  of  doing  so,  to  relate 
somewhat  minutely  my  own  personal  experience ;  though 
I  have  the  less  fear  of  incurring  suspicion  of  egotistic  motives 
from  the  belief  that  I  have  already  gained  your  Lordship's 

»  A  manager  was  once  highly  indignant  with  me  for  refusing  to  punish 
for  neglect  to  perform  the  ordinary  task  of  work  a  woman  wlio  pleaded 
her  delicate  condition  in  this  resjiect,  and  was  evidently  by  her  appearance 
near  her  confinement.  He  actually  went  so  far  as  to  apj)eal  from  my 
decision,  as  a  means  of  testing  my  right  to  withhold  a  conviction  on  such  a 
ground.  I  may  mention  that  the -support  of  my  decision  in  this  and  other 
immigration  cases  was  one  of  the  chief  real,  though  not  ostensible,  causes 
of  the  hatred  of  the  planters  for  the  late  unfurtuiiate  Chief  Justice,  a  gentle- 
man who  incurred  far  more  hostility  in  Denierara  (rom  his  many  sterling 
virtues,  than  from  the  indiscretion  which  was  the  cause  of  his  removal  from 
the  Bench. 


314  APPENDIX. 

good  opinion,  and  tne  knowledge  that  any  material  reward 
which  I  could  hope  for  any  service  in  Demerara  has  been 
already  obtained  from  your  Lordship's  favour. 

29.  In  February,  1867,  during  the  absence  on  a  year's  leave 
of  the  regular  magistrate,  having  been  previously  in  a  district 
containing  only  one  sugar  estate,  I  was  appointed,  in  highly 
complimentary  terms,  by  Major  Mundy,  then  administering 
the  government,  to  take  charge  of  the  most  populous  and  im- 
portant district  in  the  colony  :  a  recognition  of  my  public 
merits  the  more  honourable  to  its  author  in  that  there  were  at 
the  time  existing  causes  of  private  difference  between  us. 

30.  The  gentleman  who  had  been  my  predecessor  in  the 
district  is  by  common  repute  one  of  the  best  and  most  im- 
partial of  the  magistrates.  He  is  possessed  of  some  private 
means,  and  as  the  district  extends  to  an  equal  distance  on 
either  side  of  Georgetown,  and  thus  enables  residence  there, 
he  is  comparatively  independent  of  the  planters  and  their 
society.  He  is  moreover  from  his  age,  long  service,  and 
experience  entitled  to  more  than  ordinary  respect. 

31.  His  district,  as  I  found  it,  may  therefore  be  taken, 
for  my  purpose,  as  a  fair,  if  not  a  favourite,  sample  of  the 
others. 

32.  Almost  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  week  of  my  entry  upon 
my  new  duties,  I  found  confined  in  the  "  lock-ups "  of  the 
police  stations  a  number  of  persons,  and  immigrants  among 
others,  who  had  been  arrested  without  warrant,  on  the  mere 
order  of  managers  of  estates,  for  neglect  of  duty  and  other 
simple  breaches  of  contract.  On  the  mere  sight  of  the  charges 
I,  of  course,  discharged  them,  as  being  in  illegal  custody,  and, 
continuing  this  practice  subsequently,  I  at  once  aroused  the 
indignation  of  several  influential  managers,  who  severally,  at 
one  time  or  another,  in  no  very  courteous  language,  threatened 
legal  proceedings  and  other  means  of  intimidation.  But  find- 
ing that  their  pressure  did  not  afiect  my  course,  and  that  it 
was  moreover  supported  by  the  law,  they  devised  various  con- 
trivances to  evade  its  effects. 

2,Z-  I  should  be  occupying  too  much  of  your  Lordship's  time 
by  particularising  these,  but  I  would  venture  to  describe  one  as 
characteristic  of  the  class  which  furnished  its  author. 

34.  The  magistrate  sits  as  a  rule  only  once  a  week  at  each 


APPENDIX.  3  IS 

police  station.  From  the  knowledge  of  this  the  expedient* 
was  adopted  of  sending  the  prisoners  to  the  lock-ups  the  day 
after  the  court,  in  order  to  insure  their  being  at  the  least  a 
week  in  confinement,  "  remands  "  being  provided  from  brother 
managers  who  were  also  justices  of  the  peace. 

35.  To  defeat  so  glaring  a  breach  of  the  law,  I  was  obliged 
to  order  the  police  at  each  station  to  fonvard  me  daily  returns 
of  the  prisoners,  and  thus  the  evil  was  eventually  checked. 

36.  I  found  that  it  had  been  the  practice  to  bring  before  the 
magistrate  for  breaches  of  contract  the  immigrants  of  parti- 
cular estates  in  gangs,  for  the  purpose  of  their  being  tried 
altogether,  and  thus  more  rapidly  disposed  of,  and  my  refusal 
to  allow  this  practice  was  taken  as  a  great  grievance.  As  the 
charges  are  nine  times  out  of  ten  for  various  forms  of  neglect 
to  work,  an  offence  which,  except  in  the  rare  instance  of  a 
conspiracy,  is  never  ''joint,"  and  involves  in  each  case  difterent 
circumstances  and  a  different  line  of  defence,  your  Lordship 
will  understand  that  my  course  was  necessitated  by  the  com- 
monest dictates  of  justice.  Though,  possibly,  in  the  large 
majority  of  cases  the  immigrants  are  really  idle  and  culpable, 
the  practice  which  I  have  described  must  have  rendered  it 
almost  impossible  to  detect  the  exceptions. 

37.  I  found  in  existence  a  practice,  which  I  believe  is  stiU 
prevalent  all  over  the  colony,  of  forcing  the  doors  of  immi- 
grants' houses  for  the  purpose  of  what  is  called  turning  them 
out  to  work,  and  also  of  doing  the  same  and  searching  their 
rooms  without  warrant  for  stolen  goods,  and  even  sometimes 
when  there  was  only  a  suspicion  of  theft.  I  frequently  sug- 
gested to  the  immigrants  in  their  complaints  respecting  such 
acts  that  they  should  bring  criminal  charges  against  the  aggres- 
sors ;  but,  although  their  fears  invariably  prevented  their 
adoption  of  this  course,  I  believe  that  the  mere  hint  had  the 
effect  of  checking  a  practice  which,  I  was  given  to  understand, 
had  never  before  met  e^•en  with  reproof  from  the  Bench. 

38.  I  found  that  invidiously  distinct  positions  in  court  were 
assigned  to  managers  of  estates,  some  of  them,  on  the  ground 

*  Subsequent  experience  has  convinced  me  that  this  expedient  is  a  (  om- 
mon  one  throughout  the  country,  even  in  the  districts  of  the  most  compla- 
cent magistrates,  as  it  insures  some  jiunishment,  is  done  witli  perfect 
impunity,  and  obviates  the  trouble  of  prosecuting  in  court. 


31 6  APPENDIX.  \ 

of  their  being  justices  of  the  peace,  being  allowed  to  remain 
on  the  Bench  even  during  the  trial  of  their  own  cases.*  This 
may  seem  a  trivial  matter,  and  in  England  it  probably  would 
be  so,  but  it  is  otherwise  in  a  country  w'here  race-jealousies 
are  so  predominant,  and  where  suspicion  of  undue  favour 
is  so  easily  and  often,  I  fear,  so  justly  aroused.  Indeed,  my 
further  experience  convinced  me  more  and  more  that  the 
tolerance  of  such  a  practice  was  the  origin  of  much  discontent, 
as  giving  the  appearance  of  partiality  even  to  the  conscientious 
magistrate. 

39.  In  this  district  the  ordinarily  extreme  severity  of  the 
magistrate's  w^ork,  which  involves  the  trial  annually  of  between 
four  to  five  thousand  separate  informations  and  complaints, 
besides  inquests  and  depositions  for  the  Superior  Court,  was 
greatly  increased  in  my  case,  not  only  by  attempted  reforms  of 
the  above  abuses,  but  by  another  circumstance  for  which  I  was 
in  no  way  responsible. 

40.  The  regular  clerk  (only  one  is  allowed)  went  away  on 
leave,  and  when  I  had,  after  great  trouble,  educated  his  locum 
teiiens  to  work  of  which  he  knew  but  little  before,  the  latter 
was  removed  at  three  days'  notice,  and  in  spite  of  my  firm  and 
most  respectful  remonstrance,  and  replaced  by  another,  who 
had  actually  no  acquaintance  whatever  with  the  routine  of  a 
magistrate's  office ;  consequently  I  was  obliged,  though  in  very 
weak  health,  after  sitting  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  to  spend  a 
large  portion  of  the  night  in  teaching  the  simplest  duties  of  the 
office,  rather  than  give  my  openly-avowed  enemies  among  the 
planters,  who  believed  that  they  were  supported  by  the 
Governor,  f  the  opportunity  of  complaining  that  the  district 
work  was  getting  into  arrear. 

•  One  of  these  indeed  was  made  highly  indignant  by  my  refusing  to 
permit  his  whispering  to  me  upon  the  subject  of  a  case  before  me  in  which 
he  was  complainant. 

t  This  belief  was  a  matter  of  notoriety,  but  in  proof  of  it  I  may  mention 
that  one  of  my  most  determined  and  powerful  enemies,  whom  I  had  curbed 
in  various  illegalities,  delayed  for  two  months,  while  Major  IMundy  was 
acting,  and  until  the  return  of  Mr.  Hincks,  to  make  a  complaint  against  two 
of  my  decisions,  which  I  venture  to  say  was  not  only  groundless,  but  should 
never  have  been  entertained  by  the  Executive.  I  respectfully  remonstrated 
against  its  being  referred  to  me,  both  the  acts  complained  of  being  the 
proper  subject  of  legal  appeal,  but  with  no  other  efiect  than  a  reprimand. 


APPENDIX.  317 

41.  No  complaint  was,  or  ever  could  have  been,  made 
against  me  on  this  ground,  and  I  can  conscientiously  say  that 
I  performed  the  whole  of  my  duties  thoroughly,  and,  as  I  have 
reason  to  know,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  large  majority  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  district.  I  was,  however,  for  reasons  not 
stated  to  me,  removed  from  the  district  at  a  few  days'  notice  a 
month  before  the  expiration  of  the  leave  of  the  regular  magis- 
trate, and  the  public  naturally  concluded  that  the  planters  had 
been  the  cause. 

42.  After  an  interval  of  eight  months,  during  which  I  had 
no  concern  with  immigrants,  I  was  again,  at  a  few  days'  notice, 
and  without  reasons  given  and  at  an  expense  of  £,2^0  to 
myself,  removed  *  to  another  district  which  I  had  been  ottered 
and  declined  a  few  months  before,  my  respectful  request  for 
only  a  month's  delay  on  the  ground  of  peculiar  inconvenience 
to  myself  being  refused. 

43.  In  the  new  district,  called  that  of  the  West  Coast,  which 
is  only  second  in  importance  to  that  above  mentioned,  I  found 
all  the  abuses  before  alluded  to  existing  in  an  even  more  exag- 
gerated form,  and  moreover  that  cruelties  were  being  practised 
on  the  immigrants,  apparently  without  check  or  hindrance. 

44.  The  manager  of  the  largest  estate,  which,  as  making 
annually  close  upon  two  thousand  hogsheads  of  sugar,  is  second 
to  none  in  the  British  possessions,  was  brought  before  me  on 
the  complaint  of  a  Coolie  for  assault. 

45.  It  appeared  from  the  evidence  that  the  man  had  been 
knocked  down  for  leaving  the  sugar-house  at  eight  o'clock  on 
Sunday  morning  (a  day  on  which  the  immigrants  are  legally 
entitled  to  rest),  he  having  been  at  work,  with  the  mere  inter- 
mission of  meals,  from  an  early  hour  on  the  Saturday  pre- 
vious.t 

I  should,  however,  never  have  referred  to  the  subject  again,  but  that  I  am 
otherwise  unable  to  show  in  the  strongest  light  the  pressure  under  wliich  a 
magistrate  may  be  subject  in  Dcmeiara,  and  how  very  strong  arc  liis 
inducements  to  quietly  submit  to  the  ])lantcrs'  wish. 

*  Two  days  before  this  occurred  I  had  (irmly  but  respectfully  declined 
to  disclose  officially  a  private  conversation  which  occurred  at  my  own 
table. 

t  I  have  strong  reason  for  believing,  though  the  fact  is  concealed  from 
the  authorities,  that  it  is  no  uncommon  practice  to  enforce  from  the  immi- 
grants (in  spite  of  the  law)  from  sixteen  to  twenty  hours'  work  in  the  sugar- 


3x8  APPENDIX. 

46.  Another  manager,  at  an  almost  equally  large  estate,  was 
proved  before  me  to  have  knocked  down  a  Coolie  immigrant 
and  to  have  kicked  him  repeatedly  while  on  the  ground,  causing 
bruises  about  his  chest  and  other  parts  of  his  body. 

47.  With  respect  to  this  "  gentleman,"  I  further  was  informed 
afterwards  that  he  had  been  repeatedly  guilty  of  similar  acts, 
and  that  the  sufferers  had  been  either  afraid  to  complain,  or 
believed  that  there  would  be  little  use  in  doing  so.  On  one 
occasion,  however,  the  assault  had  been  upon  a  Coolie  who 
had  saved  money,  and  who,  having  employed  a  lawyer,  com- 
pelled his  assailant  to  pay  a  large  sum  to  compromise  an  action 
for  damages  in  the  Supreme  Court. 

48.  In  these  cases  I  fined  the  guilty  persons  heavily,  and 
informed  them  that  a  second  offence  would  involve  either  im- 
prisonment or  the  sending  of  the  case  before  the  Supreme 
Court.  I  believe  that  this  had  the  effect  of  checking  the  evil 
to  a  great  extent  for  the  time  at  least.  But  it  is  a  significant 
fact  that  the  first  of  these  offences  was  committed  on  plantation 
Leonora  where  the  disturbance  broke  out  three  months  after  my 
departure. 

49.  The  reform  of  all  these  abuses  was  not  accomplished 
without  arousing  against  me  again  the  enmity  of  the  planting 
body,  while  my  compulsory  residence  among  them  gave  them 
opportunities  of  displaying  it  in  a  more  disagreeable  form. 

50.  The  simplest  and  plainest  public  duty,  whenever  clash- 
ing with  the  supposed  interests  of  an  individual,  was  instantly 
treated  as  a  personal  injury.  Beginning  with  the  withdrawal  of 
ordinary  courtesy,  the  managers,  as  one  after  another  was  inter- 
fered with  in  his  malpractices,  at  length  in  concert  began  to 
subject  me  to  a  series  of  petty  insults  and  annoyances  which 
were  beginning  to  make  life  intolerable.   Without  a  description 

house.  In  proof,  I  may  mention  that  a  part  proprietor  of  several  large 
estates,  Mr.  Quintin  Hogg  (a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Bosanquet,  Curtis,  & 
Co.),  expressed  to  me,  during  his  visit  to  Demerara  last  year,  his  horror  at 
finding  tliat  tlie  immigrants  on  one  of  his  estates  had  been  for  some  days 
worked  for  twenty-two  hours  per  day,  and  added  that  the  manager  was 
aggrieved  at  his  interference  in  ordering  the  employment  of  relaj's.  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  conceive  that  human  nature  could  have  stood  so  severe  a 
strain,  and  the  time  may  have  been  exaggerated  ;  but  inasmuch  as  the 
statement,  as  coming  from  a  proprietor,  was  in  the  nature  of  a  confession, 
it  could  hardly  have  been  far  from  the  truth. 


APPENDIX,  319 

of  these  your  Lordship  will  readily  understand  that  they  were 
easily  in  their  power  in  the  case  of  one  who  was  living  alone 
upon  a  sugar  estate  (no  house  being  procurable  elsewhere), 
and  whose  only  neighbours  were  persons  connected  with  the 
plantations. 

51.  After  other  expedients  had  failed  of  efifect,  and  a  new 
Governor  having  by  this  time  arrived,  they  at  length  attacked 
me  in  the  press,  availing  themselves  of  a  newspaper  called  the 
Colonist,  which  is  the  organ  of  the  planting  interest. 

52.  I  mention  this,  because  the  occasion  which  called  forth 
the  attack  singularly  illustrates  the  spirit  of  the  planting  body. 

53.  The  person  offended  I  had  believed  to  have  been  more 
high-minded  than  his  fellows,  and  capable  of  appreciating  strict 
performance  of  duty,  even  when  apparently  adverse  to  his  own 
interest.  For  this  reason,  and  because  I  was  informed  that  he 
never  entered  a  magistrate's  court,  I  had  accepted  from  him  a 
short  time  previously  some  trifling  hospitality. 

54.  However,  when  I  had  discharged  from  custody,  as  being 
in  illegal  confinement,  three  of  his  Chinese  labourers,  who  had 
been  arrested  in  their  own  houses,  without  warrant,  for  mere 
breach  of  contract,  this  gentleman  came  deliberately  dowai  to 
the  police  station,  where  I  was  holding  court,  and  grossly  in- 
sulted me  before  a  crowd  of  people  and  a  large  number  oi 
managers,  who  had  evidently  collected  for  the  purpose  of  wit- 
nessing the  scene.  Having  no  power  of  committing  for  con- 
tempt, I  could  merely  order  his  removal  from  the  court,  but  as 
he  was  a  special  justice  of  the  peace,  and,  therefore,  the  last 
who  should  have  set  such  an  example,  I  appealed  in  person  to 
the  Governor  for  the  purpose  of  having  him  removed  from  the 
Bench.  But  neither  on  that  occasion  nor  on  any  other,  except 
during  the  short  regime  oi  Major  Mundy,  did  I  receive  support 
from  the  Executive  against  a  planter.  I  was  in  too  weak  health 
(having  been  unable  for  some  weeks  previously  to  walk  without 
support,  and  been  subject  to  continual  attacks  of  fever)  to  press 
the  point  warmly  at  the  time,  and  your  Lordship's  gracious  offer 
of  my  present  appointment  reaching  me  immediately  afterwards, 
1  was  relieved  from  a  painful  position  which  my  physical  con- 
dition could  not  have  supported  much  longer. 

55.  The  article  in  the  Colonist  of  March  2nd,*  above  re- 
•  The  article  referred  to  was  published  on  March  24th.— [Ed.  C.J 


320  APPENDIX, 

ferred  to,  while  ostensibly  uTitten  for  another  purpose,  set  forth 
the  real  grievance  against  me,  viz.,  that  I  did  not  "  please 
the  planters."  As  to  my  particular  act  complained  of,  viz., 
the  discharge  of  the  three  Chinese,  the  essential  fact  is  omitted, 
that  their  arrest  had  been  without  warrant.  While  I,  of  course, 
took  no  notice  of  the  attack,  I  found  an  unexpected  defender  in 
the  Creole,  the  organ  of  the  coloured  races.  The  articles  in 
that  paper  of  the  29th  and  31st,  though  containing  trifling  errors 
and  remarks  which  might  have  been  better  omitted,  are  never- 
theless a  complete  answer  to  the  attack,  and  are  most  useful  as 
showing  the  opinion  of  intelligent  coloured  people  on  the 
manner  in  which  justice  is  usually  administered.  Ultimately, 
the  planting  organ  threatened  an  appeal,  which  was,  however, 
very  advisedly  never  attempted,  as  the  exposure  of  the  legality 
of  my  course  would  have  precluded  from  a  contrary  one  more 
complacent  magistrates  in  other  districts.  But  a  movement 
was  on  foot  when  the  news  of  my  promotion  arrived  to  obtain 
from  the  Executive  my  removal  from  the  district,  though  I  have 
no  reason  to  believe  that  such  pressure  would  have  had  any 
effect  on  Mr.  Scott. 

56.  Had  I  been  ever  unduly  lenient  to  the  coloured  races, 
and  could  I  have  been  considered  in  any  sense  their  cham- 
pion, it  would  have  been  easy  to  understand  the  estimation  in 
which,  I  am  proud  to  say,  I  was  held  by  them,  and  the  bitter 
enmity  of  the  planters.  But  this  was  very  far  from  being  the 
case.  No  magistrate  was,  I  believe,  ever  more  severe  on 
proved  crime  and  misconduct,  and  in  proof  I  may  mention 
that  in  the  eleven  months  during  which  I  held  ofhce  in  the 
first  district  named  I  ordered  more  flogging  than  had  ever 
taken  place  before  in  a  similar  time,  and  out  of  a  population 
of  twenty  thousand  at  the  most  I  sentenced  over  twelve  hun- 
dred* to  imprisonment  with  hard  labour,  and  of  these  probably 
two-fifths  were  indentured  immigrants  convicted  chiefly  of 
breaches  of  contract.  During  the  same  time,  however,  I  have 
the  authority  of  the  chief  of  the  district  police  for  saying,  that 
the  "feeding  returns"  of  the  "lock-ups"  had  been  reduced  by 
more    than  one-third,  which   aflords    some  indication   of  the 


*  I  have  not  the  returns  by  me,  but  I  know  that  these  figures  are  con- 
siderably within  the  mark. 


APPENDIX,  321 

extent  to  which  improper  imprisonment  had  been  previously 
carried. 

57.  I  have,  as  I  have  said,  entered  thus  minutely  into  my 
personal  experience  simply  and  solely  as  the  only  means  within 
my  power  of  proving  to  your  Lordship  that  under  the  present 
system  in  Demerara  independence  and  impartiality  on  the  part 
of  magistrates  is  not  and  cannot  be  the  rule,  and  that  the  dis- 
content which  pervades  all  the  labouring  classes  might  under 
the  circumstances  be  naturally  expected. 

58.  If  there  was,  as  I  trust  there  was,  an  exception  in  my 
case,  I  take  no  credit  to  myself  whatever.  Had  I  lived  as  long 
as  most  of  my  brother  magistrates  amidst  the  demoralizing 
influence  of  the  all-pervading  West  Indian  moral  cowardice,  or 
had  I,  as  they  mostly  have,  a  family  dependent  on  me,  my 
course  might  have  been,  though  I  trust  not,  only  parallel  with 
theirs.  At  all  events,  the  difficulty  and  even  danger  of  any 
other  would  have  been  vastly  increased. 

59.  For  the  reform  of  the  system  described,  of  which  I 
trust  I  have  shown  the  extreme  and  urgent  need,  I  would  most 
respectfully  suggest  the  following  measures  as  the  only  ones 
which  in  my  opinion  would  thoroughly  meet  the  exigencies  of 
the  case. 

60.  As  I  consider  that  the  attempt  would  be  hopeless  to 
obtain  impartiality  from  district  magistrates  in  Demerara,  and 
it  is  yet  desirable  for  the  sake  of  order  that  those  officers  should 
still  reside  in  the  country,  I  would  suggest  that  the  creation 
of  a  new  and  superior  class,  with  sole  jurisdiction  in  all  cases, 
both  civil  and  criminal,  between  emi)loyers  and  employed,  both 
indentured  and  free,  and  in  cases  of  trespass. ■■'  They  should 
be  required  to  reside  in  town,  and  to  hold  a  court  at  each 
police  station  not  more  than  once  a  month.  I'hey  shoukl 
moreover  be  invested  with  a  power  of  summarily  punishing 
illegal  stoppage  of  vvages,  and  also  false  arrests  and  imprison- 
ment, both  in  its  authors  and  its  agents  :  the  ordinary  redress 

*  A  common  practice  exists  amorif^  managers  of  estates  which  are  con- 
veniently situated  for  the  purpose  of  coercing  the  neighbouring  villagers  to 
work  for  them  by  vexatious  charges  of  tresi)ass.  1  have  Icnown  cases 
•wlicre  individuals  have  been  thus  cliargcii  for  using  a  right  ol  way  wiiicli 
had  existed  for  many  years,  liiougii  hundreds  of  otiiers  were  passing  over  it 
daily  whom  thcic  was  no  intention,  or  even  desire,  of  prosecuting. 

Y 


322  APPENDIX. 

of  a  civil  action  being  practically  out  of  the  reach  of  ninety- 
nine  labourers  out  of  a  hundred. 

6 1.  The  residence  in  town  would  secure  them  against  much 
of  the  pressure  above  described,  and  the  diminished  frequency 
of  courts  would  check  the  tendency  of  governing  immigrants 
by  fear  rather  than  by  good  treatment.* 

62.  Except  perhaps  at  first,  the  new  measure  need  be 
attended  with  no  expense.  The  district  magistrates,  being 
relieved  of  a  large  portion  of  their  work,  would  be  able  to 
take  charge  of  much  larger  districts,  and  would  be  able  to  take 
exclusive  charge  of  coroners'  inquests,  which,  when  before 
ordinary  justices,  are  not  only  attended  with  expense,  but,  as  I 
have  shown,  are  most  unsatisfactorily  conducted. 

63.  Seven  district  magistrates  would,  therefore,  amply  suffice, 
instead  of  twelve,  and  thus  ;!^3,5oo  a-year  would  be  saved  for 
the  payment  of  three  circuit  magistrates. 

64.  Finally,  with  respect  to  these  officers,  I  would  respect- 
fully suggest  that  they  should  be  appointed  exclusively  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  and  from  persons  who  had  had  no  previous 
connection  with  the  West  Indies,  except  perhaps  in  an  inde- 
pendent position,  such  as  the  army,  or  otherwise  the  object  o 
the  ncAv  creation  would  be  partially  defeated. 

65.  The  effect  of  this  reform  would  be,  I  feel  confident,  the 
removal  of  much  of  the  prevailing  discontent,  not  only  among 
the  immigrants,  but  among  the  Creole  labourers,  who  are  also 
under  the  present  system  too  often,  on  insufficient  grounds  and 
on  hardly  plausible  pretences,  deprived  of  their  rightful  wages. 
Another  though  less  potent  cause  of  discontent  among  the 
immigrants  is  their  house  accommodation. 

66.  Although  I  believe  it  would  be  found  on  inquiry  that 
the  immigrants  are  allowed  considerably  less  room  on  the 
average  than  convicts  in  English  prisons,  I  do  not  allude  to 
the  question  of  "  cubic  space,"  for  even  if  the  importance  of 

*  Tlmt  .this  is  not  only  possible  but  profitable,  I  would  mention  the 
notoiious  fact  that  some  of  the  mo^t  successful  estates  (as  once  admitted  by 
Islr.  Hincks  in  the  Court  of  Policy)  are  those  which  least  frequently  trouble 
the  magistrates.  \lx.  Clementson,  a  late  member  of  the  Court  of  Policy, 
who  is  in  some  respects  the  most  successful  planter  in  the  colony  (having 
from  very  humble  beginnings  acquired  a  large  fortune),  has  not  for  years 
charged  an  immigrant  with  breach  of  contract. 


APPENDIX  323 

this  subject  has  not  been  too  much  exaggerated  elsewhere,  I 
believe  that  when  houses  are  as  little  impervious  to  the  air  as 
those  of  the  lower  classes  in  the  tropics,  bad  ventilation,  if  an 
existent  evil  at  all,  is  the  least  of  those  produced  by  over- 
crowding. 

67.  The  great  majority  of  the  houses  in  the  "nigger-yards  " 
(as  they  are  still  ordinarily  called)  which  are  allotted  to  immi- 
grants, are  built  of  two  stories,  and  consist  of  a  number  of 
very  small  rooms.  These  are  ordinarily,  as  far  as  my  limited 
observation  has  extended,  from  nine  to  ten  feet  square,  and  are 
divided  by  thin  and  easily-scaled  partitions. 

68.  Most  managers  have,  I  believe,  though  I  am  far  from 
sure,  been  compelled  to  allow  a  separate  room  to  each  married 
couple  and  their  children,  though  three,  four,  and  even  more 
single  men  are,  I  know,  frequently  crowded  in  the  same  place. 
But  married  and  single  alike  have  to  use  passages,  sheds, 
euphemistically  termed  kitchens,  and  other  conveniences 
common  to  many  others  diftering  in  caste*  and  sometimes  in 
race.  Moreover,  from  the  filthy  and  lazy  habits  of  the  people, 
the  occupants  of  the  upper  story  are  a  continual  source  of 
discomfort  and  annoyance  to  those  on  the  ground-floor,  and 
hence,  in  a  great  measure,  arise  the  endless  quarrels,  abusive 
language,  and  assaults,  which  occupy  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
magistrate's  time. 

69.  A  proof  of  the  discontent  of  the  Coolies  with  this  state 
of  things,  even  if  there  were  no  complaints  on  the  subject, 
exists  in  the  fact  that,  whenever  allowed  to  do  so,  they  in- 
variably erect  for  themselves  private  cottages  of  mud.  These 
are  generally,  as  may  be  supposed,  of  a  wretched  description, 
and  the  preference  of  them  by  the  immigrants  to  the  com- 
paratively substantial  houses  provided  by  the  estates,  is  usually 
cited  by  the  planters  as  the  deliberate  preference  of  squalor  to 
comfort. 

70.  From  personal  inquiries  among  many  immigrants,  I  am 
satisfied  that  this  inference  is  incorrect ;  their  invariable  answer 

♦  Although  all  Indians  lose  their  caste  on  leaving  Hindostan,  the  dis- 
tinctions and  jealousies  are  kept  uj)  to  a  great  extent  in  Demerara.  There 
are  even  many  calling  tiicmsclvcs  Brahmins  who,  while  averse  from  work 
themselves,  olHain  the  |)crtormance  of  their  tasks  by  working  uj)on  the 
superstition  of  their  fellows. 


324  APPENDIX 

has  been  to  the  effect  that  these  houses  are  their  own ;  their 
privacy  is  not  so  continually  invaded,  and  tfhey  are  more  se.  ure 
from  loss  of  their  goods  and  attempts  on  the  chastity  of  their 
wives. 

71.  This  evil  would  not  admit  of  so  immediate  a  remedy  as 
the  others  mentioned.  But  a  long  step  towards  its  alleviation 
might  be  made  by  compelling  all  the  estates  which  have 
surplus  front  lands  (and  these  are  very  many)  to  devote 
drained  spaces  for  the  erection  of  these  cottages  by  deserving 
immigrants  who  have  the  means  and  desire  to  do  so  ;  and  also 
by  preventing  new  immigrant  barracks  being  built  of  more 
than  one  story,  and  without  kitchens,  &c.,  for  at  most  every 
ten  people. 

72.  The  permission  to  erect  private  houses  is  already  largely 
granted  on  some  estates  to  free  immigrants  as  an  inducement 
to  them  to  remain  on  the  estates.  But  the  mode  of  living  is 
otherwise  discouraged  by  the  planters  ;  as  the  people,  being 
scattered  over  a  larger  area,  there  is  a  great  difficulty  of  what 
is  called  "  enforcing  discipline,"  which  really  means  turning 
out  to  work. 

73.  Another  frequent  cause  of  complaint  is  want  of  water, 
either  of  proper  quality  or  in  sufficient  supply.  And  this  in 
dry  seasons,  such  as  occurred  last  year,  becomes  a  cruel  hard- 
ship. Though  the  country  is  everywhere  intersected  by  canals 
and  trenches,  these,  in  the  dry  season,  become  mostly  tainted 
with  salt  water,  while  many  are  poisoned  by  the  "  lees  "  from 
the  rum  distilleries.  On  the  estate  on  which  I  resided  last 
year,  I  have  repeatedly  seen  the  people  obHged,  after  their 
day's  work  in  the  field,  to  go  more  than  a  mile  for  water, 
which,  even  when  procured,  was  putrid  in  smell  and  disgusting 
to  the  taste ;  and  I  was  informed  that  this  evil  existed  even  in 
a  more  exaggerated  form  on  other  estates.  Efforts  were  un- 
doubtedly made  to  procure  pure  water  at  a  great  expense  from 
a  distance  of  twenty  miles  up  the  Demerara  river,  but  e\en 
this  was  muddy  and  unfit  for  drinking ;  and,  moreover,  the 
distance  and  difficulty  of  transport  inevitably  rendered  the 
supply  meagre  and  irregular. 

74.  There  is  no  excuse  for  such  a  want  of  water  in  Demerara. 
The  average  fall  of  rain  of  one  hundred  inches  (there  were  even 
from  sixty  to  seventy  inches  last  year)  is  amply  sufficient  to 


1 


APPENDIX.  325 

supply  all  the  wants  of  the  estates  if  the  commonest  precau- 
tions were  taken  for  preserving  it. 

75.  One  or  two  estates  are  now  setting  a  good  example  in 
providing  iron  tanks,  but  this  could  not  probably  be  afforded 
by  all.  But,  from  whatever  source  derived,  a  sufficient  supply 
of  comparatively  pure  water  should  and  could  easily  be  en- 
forced from  all  estates  to  which  immigrants  are  allotted. 

76.  Another  much-needed  reform  is  that  of  the  Immigration 
Department.  Its  present  head  is  a  thoroughly  upright,  con- 
scientious, and  indefatigable  public  officer,  and  he  is,  as  far  as 
possible  in  his  circumstances,  independent.  The  difficulties  of 
his  position  have  been  very  much  lightened  by  the  present 
Governor,  even  before  I  left  the  colony  j  but  under  the  present 
system  his  time  must  necessarily  be  chiefly  taken  up  by  the 
mere  routine  of  the  office,  leaving  but  little  time  for  the  proper 
and  searching  investigation  of  the  complaints  which  are  con- 
tinually pouring  in  upon  him  from  all  quarters. 

77.  His  subordinates  are  insufficient  in  number  for  the 
proper  performance  of  their  present  duties ;  and  entirely  so,  if 
others,  such  as  it  is  desirable  should  be  performed  by  the  office, 
were  added  to  them. 

78.  At  present,  the  sub-immigration  agents  visit  estates  at 
stated  periods  for  the  purpose  of  re-indenturing  and  paying 
bounty,  or  of  granting  free  tickets  to  immigrants  whose  term 
of  service  has  expired,  and  only  at  other  times  for  the  investi- 
gation of  some  matter  of  complaint  of  more  than  ordinary 
gravity.  As  they  almost  invariably,  when  on  their  travels, 
accept  the  hospitality  of  managers,  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  their  duties  should  be  strictly,  regularly,  and  impartially 
performed. 

79.  And,  indeed,  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  they 
are  not.  For  I  have  myself  known  cases  where  immigrants' 
indentures  have  been  improperly  and  carelessly  extended,  and 
where  complaints  have  been  but  cursorily  and  far  from  tho- 
roughly investigated.  Moreover,  by  the  very  anomalous 
system,  introduced  by  the  late  Governor,  of  granting  them 
travelling  allowance  individually,  they  were  made  virtually  intle- 
pendent  of  the  head  of  the  office  and  free  of  proper  control.* 

*  I  believe  that  this  anomaly  has  been  removed  by  the  prcbent  Governor 
,since  my  departure  from  the  colony. 


326  APPENDIX. 

80.  But  even  granting  that  the  present  work  is  efficiently 
performed,  there  is  another  duty  which,  for  the  sake  of  justice 
to  the  immigrants,  should  be  performed  by  the  office. 

81.  Under  the  present  law,  an  employer  is  bound  to  pay  to 
his  indentured  labourers  the  same  price  for  their  work  as  paid 
to  free  labourers.  It  is,  however,  notorious  that  this, obligation 
is  as  a  rule  evaded,  and  sometimes  openly  broken. 

82.  The  former  is  easily  done,  where  all  field  labour,  as  in 
Demerara,  is  done  by  tasks,  by  allotting  to  both  indentured 
and  free  an  equal  area  for  weeding,  ploughing,  or  cane-cutting, 
at  the  same  price,  but  selecting  the  more  distant*  field  or 
ground,  which  requires  more  labour,  for  the  indentured. 

83.  As  regards  actual  breaking  of  the  law,  I  have  known 
cases,  and  believe  them  to  be  not  uncommon,  where  immigrants 
have  been  compelled  to  work  for  a  price  which  free  labourers 
would  have,  and  sometimes  actually  have,  refused. 

84.  It  is  quite  impossible  for  the  most  impartial  magistrate, 
under  the  present  system,  to  do  justice  in  such  cases,  or  in 
many  others,  in  which  immigrants  are  aggri-eved.  The  manager 
can  always  produce  a  number  of  overseers,  drivers,  and 
others  dependent  on  him,  to  make  an  overAvhelming  weight  of 
testimony  in  his  favour,  while  the  immigrant,  who  is  perhaps 
generally  in  the  wrong,  has  not  the  intelligence  and  cannot 
produce  proper  witnesses  to  present  his  case  clearly  when  he 
is  in  the  right.  He  has  thus  a  direct  inducement  to  supple- 
ment his  ignorance  by  falsehood  and  suborned  perjury,  which, 
being  usually  transparent,  of  course  invalidates  other  very 
possibly  truthful  testimony  on  the  same  side. 

85.  On  the  other  hand,  my  experience  has  taught  me  that 
falsehood  in  court  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  coloured 
races,  and  that  the  whites  connected  with  estates,  whether 
managers,  overseers,  or  engineers,  are  often  by  no  means 
scrupulous  about  the  truth  when  their  interest  or  their  fears 
enter  into  the  question  at  issue  ;  and  this  class  of  falsehood, 
as  proceeding  from  greater  intelligence,  is  of  course  the  more 
difficult  of  detection. 

86.  As  the  result  of  all  these  difficulties  in  the  path  of  a 

♦  Distance  is  of  great  importance  where,  as  on  most  of  the  estates,  some 
fields  are  three  to  five  miles  from,  while  others  are  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of,  the  buildings. 


APPENDIX.  327 

most  conscientious  magistrate,  an  immigrant  but  rarely  wins  a 
case  against  his  estate,  either  civil  or  criminal,  either  as  prose- 
cutor, plaintiff,  or  defendant.  The  magistrates'  returns  would 
indeed  indicate  otherwise,  from  the  large  number  of  cases 
which  appear  there  as  dismissed.  But  of  these  but  a  very- 
small  portion  have  been  really  pressed  by  the  managers.  For 
it  is  notorious  that  very  many  informations  are  most  impro- 
perly compromised  by  money  payments,  and  in  these  cases  but 
a  slight  show  of  resistance,  if  any,  is  maintained  in  court, 

87.  These  evils,  and  many  others  like  them,  can,  in  my 
opinion,  only  be  remedied  by  the  appointment  of  Government 
officers  whose  duty  it  would  be  to  make  unexpected  visits  to 
estates,  and  whenever  occasion  might  require,  for  the  purpose 
cf  personally  inspecting  work  assigned  and  the  payment  offered 
to  immigrants,  and  of  ascertaining  the  true  facts  in  any  doubt- 
ful case  where  these  labourers  were  concerned,  so  that  there 
might  be  always  forthcoming,  when  necessary,  independent 
and  disinterested  evidence  as  a  guide  to  the  magistrate  in  his 
decision. 

88.  The  police  would  not  answer  for  this  duty,  as  in  the  first 
place  t.hey  are,  for  the  most  part,  entirely  ignorant  of  any  of  the 
eastern  languages,  and,  moreover,  would  be  too  much  under 
the  influence  of  the  managers,  many  of  whom  are  also  justices 
of  the  peace,  and  would  thus  be  furnished  with  a  ready  means 
of  bringing  pressure  to  bear  upon  them. 

89.  I  would  respectfully  suggest  that  for  this  purpose  the 
number  of  sub-immigration  agents  should  be  increased,  that 
they  should  be  instructed  to  acquire  a  practical  knowledge,  as 
might  be  sufficiently  done  in  a  very  short  time,  of  the  different 
kinds  of  work  on  the  sugar  plantations,  and  should  be  forbidden 
to  accept  under  any  circumstances  the  hospitality  of  managers, 
which  is  certain  to  be  largely  proffered  to  them. 

90.  As  tending  to  prove  the  ]>ropriety  of  this  restriction,  I 
may  mention  that  it  is  voluntarily  placed  upon  himself  by  an 
officer  of  considerably  higher  standing  than  the  sub-immigra- 
tion agents,  and  I  have  the  less  hesitation  in  mentioning  his 
name  in  a  matter  which  redounds  so  much  to  his  credit  in  that 
I  have  no  personal  acquaintance  with  him  ;  I  mean  Ur.  Shier, 
the  Inspector  of  Estates'  Hospitals. 

91.  So  strictly  scrupulous  is  he  in  this  respect,  that  he  is 


328  APPENDIX. 

frequently  obliged  for  his  night's  lodging  to  put  up  with  such 
very  scanty  accommodation  as  is  afforded  by  the  court  rooms 
at  the  police  stations  \  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  such  scruples 
should  be  encouraged,  as  could  be  easily  done  by  furnishing  a 
room  with  necessary  furniture  at  stations  for  ihe  use  of  all 
public  officers  on  their  official  circuits. 

92.  As  your  Lordship  might  deem  it  a  matter  of  difficulty  to 
find  proper  persons  to  fill  such  offices  as  I  have  proposed,  I 
would  most  respectfully  venture  to  suggest  that  such  might  be 
found  among  discharged  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  army 
who  had  served  in  India. 

93.  Their  residence  there  would  have  to  a  great  extent 
acclimatised  them  to  all  tropical  climates,  and  would  possibly 
have  given  them  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  one  or  other  of  the 
Indian  languages  to  enable  them  to  make  themselves  understood 
to  a  few  of  the  immigrants  of  each  estate.  Their  pensions 
would  moreover  assist  their  salaries,  and  if  they  had  been 
engaged  in  regimental  or  brigade  offices  they  would  have  learnt 
something  of  official  routine  and  correspondence. 

94.  In  conclusion,  it  is  not  without  earnest  thought  and  a 
profound  conviction  of  the  good  poHcy  as  well  as  justice  of  the 
measure  that  I  venture  to  suggest  a  reform  of  the  present  arti- 
ficial system  of  immigration  which  is  taking  place  in  British 
Guiana,  and  this  almost  as  much  for  the  interest  of  the  planters 
as  of  the  immigrants  themselves. 

95.  For,  notwithstanding  the  superior  value  of  the  acclima- 
tised immigrant,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  power  of  obtaining  an 
unlimited  amount  of  new  hands,  to  so  great  an  extent  at  the 
public  cost,  is  an  encouragement  of  an  uneconomical  use  of 
existing  labour,  and  of  carelessness  and  even  cruelty  in  the 
treatment  of  those  already  under  indenture. 

96.  And  I  would  respectfully  urge  that  on  higher  grounds 
the  limit  has  been  reached  at  which  immigration  should  be 
allowed  to  continue  on  its  present  looting  as  a  direct  burthen 
on  the  public  puibe.  It  was,  no  doubt,  fair  enough  that  the 
general  revenue  of  the  colony  should  at  first  pay  a  third  of  the 
cost  of  immigration.  Labour  was  absolutely  required,  not  only 
for  the  advancement  of  the  general  prosperity,  but  to  prevent 
the  wholesale  abandonment  of  cultivation.  The  Negro  labourers, 
moreover,  required  competition  as  an  incitement  to  industry, 


APPENDIX.  329 

and  the  lesson  which  has  been  taught  them  has  been  doubtless 
wholesome  and  just,  though  a  very  severe  one.  But  I  would 
respectfully  urge  that  its  severity  is  now  becoming  dispropor- 
tionate to  its  justice,  and  every  year  more  so. 

97.  Though  production  has  greatly  increased,  it  has  not 
done  so  in  proportion  to  the  labour  introduced,  and  wages 
have  consequently  fallen  in  value  all  over  the  colony.  In  the 
dry  seasons  planters  have  often  difficulty  in  finding  employment 
for  their  indentured  immigrants,  and  have  therefore  very  little 
for  free  labourers,  whom  I  saw  last  year  in  large  gangs,  peram- 
bulating the  country  unable  to  find  work  at  alh  Moreover, 
the  excessively  high  taxation  (raised  chiefly  from  articles  of 
general  consumption)  which  is  necessitated  by  the  annual 
charge*  for  the  colony  share  of  immigration,  makes  exception- 
ally dear  nearly  all  the  necessaries  of  life  used  by  the  labourers, 
both  Creole  and  immigrant. 

98.  These  are  thus  paying  in  two  ways  for  what,  instead  of  a 
benefit,  is  a  direct  and  is  becoming  a  grievous  injury  to  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  planters  obtain  free  of  duty  the  greater 
part  of  the  supplies  peculiarly  required  by  the  estates,  and  thus 
pay  but  a  mere  trifle  towards  the  general  revenue. 

99.  I  believe  that  on  a  close  investigation  of  this  subject 
your  Lordship  would  be  convinced  that  the  time  has  come 
when  the  planters  should  pay  the  whole  cost  of  immigration, 
which  now  far  more  than  formerly  exclusively  benefits  them- 
selves. 

100.  They  are  well  able  to  do  so,  for  it  is  notorious  that  all 
the  well-managed  estates  (and  no  others  have  a  right  to  be  con- 
sidered) have  for  some  years  been  making  large  profits.f  These 
were   greatly  increased  by  the  destruction  of  the  estates  in 

*  £(i^,000.  I  have  not  the  exact  figures  at  hand,  but  I  believe  that  this 
is  an  approximate  amount.  A  comparison  between  tiie  tariff  and  prices 
existing  in  Briti^h  Guiana,  with  that  of  the  otiicr  West  Indian  colonies, 
would  show  in  how  high  a  degree  this  is  true. 

t  The  estate  of  "  Schoon  Ord  "  has  for  three  years  just  published  net 
profits  averaging  _^I 5,000  (last  year  ;<!■  17,000,  if  I  recollect  rightly).  It  has 
no  superiority  over  a  hundred  others  beyond  freedom  from  embarrassment, 
command  of  capital,  and  good  management ;  the  land  is  even  consideied 
inferior  to  the  average,  and  not  many  years  ago  was  nearly  being  abandoned 
as  worn  out  and  worthless.  Ammonia  has  worked  the  change.  Ruiinveld 
(belonging  to  Dutch  proprietors)  has  been  worked  at  a  crofit  lor  many 


330  APPENDIX. 

Louisiana,*  which  alone  besides  produced  the  peculiar  kind  of 
crystallized  (or  as  it  is  technically  called  vacuum  pan)  sugar, 
which  is  so  greatly  in  demand  in  the  United  States,  and  were 
again  largely  increased  by  the  enhanced  value  of  all  kinds  of 
sugar  produced  by  the  troubles  in  Cuba.f 

loi.  If  any  portion  of  these  profits  in  any  way  benefited  the 
labourers  there  would  be  less  cause  for  the  measure  proposed. 
But  so  far  from  that,  wages,  as  I  have  shown,  are  falling  rather 
than  rising. 

1 02.  Even  when  the  whole  direct  cost  of  immigration  is 
borne  by  the  planters,  the  general  revenue  will  still  be  charged 
for  expenditure  indirectly  occasioned  by  it  with  an  amount 
fully  proportionate  to  any  advantage  gained  from  it  by  others 
than  planters,  these  being  the  very  small  mercantile  and  shop- 
keeping  community,  who  are  not  owners  of  or  directly  connected 
with  the  sugar  estates. 

103.  I  have,  as  I  have  said,  no  statistics  to  guide  me,  but  I 
feel  sure  that  your  Lordship  by  reference  to  them  will  find  that 
of  the  ;^8o,ooo  or  thereabouts  annually  paid  for  police,  hos- 
pitals, asylums,  gaols,  and  expenses  of  justice,  at  least  ^25,000 
has  been  the  direct  result  of  Coolie  immigration.  This  amount 
is  annually  increased,  and  to  it  must  also  be  added  the  expense 
of  the  Immigration  Office,  or  ;z^3,ooo  more.  The  reduction  of 
the  general  expenditure  by  the;^65,ooo  or  thereabouts  devoted 
to  immigration  would  permit  of  the  admission,  free  of  duty,  of 
all  the  articles  which  are  necessaries  of  life  to  the  labourers 
(both  Creole  and  immigrants),  and  thus  would  be,  not  only  an 
enormous  immediate  boon  to  them,  but,  in  accordance  with  the 
ordinary  operation  of  free  trade,  would  eventually  benefit  the 
planter  himself. 

years,  and  is  now  believed  to  be  not  far  behind  "  Schoon  Ord  "  in  its  net 
returns.  The  latter  statement  also  holds  good  of  many  others,  in  proportion 
to  the  amount  of  their  crop. 

*  Except  Mauritius,  but  this  supplies  mainly  the  Australian  market. 

t  To  show  what  the  profits  must  have  been  this  year,  I  would  mention 
that  I  was  informed  by  the  proprietor  of  an  estate  of  average  size,  making 
crystallized  sugar,  that  he  made  a  "handsome"  profit  when  his  crj'stallized 
sugar  sold  at  6  cents  per  pound,  but  the  average  price  this  year  has  been 
$6.75,  and  has  been  as  high  as  $7.50.  Supposing  40,000  of  the  80,000 
hogsheads  made  in  the  colony  to  be  crj'stallized,  the  increased  profit  on  this 
alone  would  amount  for  the  year  to  $540,000,  or  ^108,000.  The  value  ol 
common  sugar  has  also  been  enhanced,  but  not  in  proportion. 


APPENDIX.  331 

104.  Were  the  production  of  the  country  to  be  lowered,  or 
even  its  progress  checked  by  the  proposed  measure,  considera- 
tions of  pohcy  might  still  be  allowed  their  weight  against 
abstract  justice.  But  I  believe  this  would  be  in  no  degree  the 
case.  For  even  if  less  immigrants  were  applied  for,  which  in 
view  of  the  very  large  margin  of  profit  on  sugar  cultivation  I 
consider  very  unlikely,  their  additional  cost  would  secure  bett  ,r 
treatment  for  those  already  in  the  country,  which  with  cheaper 
living  would  render  already  acquired  labour  more  willing  and 
therefore  more  productive.  In  the  end  I  believe  that  the  gain 
would  be  not  less  that  of  the  planters  than  of  the  labourers. 

105.  In  conclusion  I  feel  bound  to  answer  three  plausible 
arguments  usually  put  forward  by  the  planters  in  proof  of  the 
well-being  of  the  immigrants,  viz. : — ist,  the  large  number  of 
them  who  re-indenture;  2nd,  the  present  small  death-rate; 
and  3rd,  the  large  sums  taken  away  by  those  who  return  to 
their  own  country. 

106.  It  is  true  that  a  large  number  of  Coolies  annually  re- 
indenture  themselves  at  the  expiration  of  their  service,  but  this 
may  be  partly  ascribed  to  many  other  causes  than  their  well- 
being  in  servitude. 

107.  The  50  dols.  (;^io  8j.  4^^.)  bounty  paid  to  them  for 
re-indenturing,  often  increased  5  dols.  or  10  dols.  by  individual 
proprietors,  is  alone  a  very  powerful  temptation.  The  present 
advantage  of  a  year's  income  paid  down  may  well  make  blind 
the  ignorant  Coohe  to  the  possibilities  of  the  future.  A  similar 
advantage  would  be  apt  to  distort  the  judgment  and  overcome 
the  prudence  of  persons  in  a  far  higher  rank  of  life ;  and  this 
tangible  temptation  is  to  my  knowledge  sometimes  increased 
by  false  allurements  held  out  by  "drivers"  of  their  own  race, 
who  have  been  promised  premiums  for  the  procurement  of 
"  hands." 

108.  But,  notwithstanding  these  temptations,  it  would  be 
found  on  inquiry  that  but  very  few  of  the  stronger  and  more 
provident,  who  have  saved  any  considerable  sum  of  money, 

-  can  be  induced  to  re-indenture  except  on  estates  where  the 
treatment  is  generally  known  to  be  good.* 

*  To  give  another  almost  unneeded  proof  of  the  actual  profit  altending 
considerate  treatment  of  the  labourers,  1  may  mention  that  an  estate  called 
Vreed-en-Hoop,  obtains  all  its  required  supplies  of  labour  among  old  hands 


332  APPENDIX. 

109.  Planters  as  a  rule  do  not  exercise  any  discrimination  in 
the  choice  of  those  to  whom  they  give  bounty.  Inquiries  are 
but  seldom  made  about  character  or  precedent,  and,  as  though 
a  large  number  of  re-indentures  redounded  to  the  credit  of  the 
management  with  proprietors  at  home,  hands  are  often  accepted 
respecting  whom  the  slightest  inquiry  would  have  discovered 
that  they  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  previous  service  in 
idleness,  desertion,  and  imprisonment ;  consequently  com- 
plaints are  frequent  of  desertion  following  immediately  after 
receipt  of  bounty. 

no.  But  there  is  another,  and  perhaps  the  strongest  reason 
of  all  for  the  amount  of  re-indentures,  viz.,  that  for  those  who 
have  no  capital  freedom  is  really  of  little  value  as  against 
indentures,  made  more  attractive  by  the  bounty  and  (as  I  have 
above  described)  privacy  of  living.  Land  is  only  to  be  obtained 
at  a  high  price  (the  Government  rate  practically  precludes 
sales),  and  the  Indian  Coolie  is  not  fond  enough  of  agriculture 
to  make  any  immediate  sacrifice,  such  as  uncleared  land  re- 
quires, to  engage  in  it  on  his  own  account.  Neither  stock- 
raising  (his  favourite  occupation)  nor  shop-taking  can  be  com- 
menced on  nothing ;  so  that  free  Coolies  without  capital  are 
almost  necessarily  obliged  to  work  upon  the  sugar  estates.  It 
is  thus  that  the  bounty  comes  in  so  peculiarly  strong  a  tempta- 
tion to  all  such,  the  strong,  industrious,  and  practised  labourer 
feeling  that  he  will  avoid  the  severer  pressure  of  servitude,  and 
the  weak  and  idle  looking  to  desertion,  or  at  the  Avorst 
imprisonmentjt  to  which  he  has  probably  been  well  accustomed 
before. 

III.  2nd.  The  death-rate  has  certainly  been  largely  reduced 
by  the  sanitary  measures  forced  upon  the  estates  by  the  In- 
spector of  Hospitals,  and  if,  as  I  am  informed,  it  was  last  year 

who  have  been  attracted  from  other  estates  ;  and  these  apply  in  such  large 
numbers  as  to  enable  the  selection  of  the  best  after  probation.  They  are  of 
course  far  more  valuable  on  account  of  their  being  acclimatised,  and  being 
practised  in  the  various  operations  of  agriculture  and  manufacture,  than 
new  importations  for  whom  the  same  price  has  to  be  paid. 

t  It  is  far  from  uncommon  for  immigrants  (especially  those  who  in  their 
own  country'  have  been  accustomed  merely  to  in-door  work)  to  break  the 
law  with  the  especial  view  of  going  to  gaol.  Many  have  told  me  that  they 
were  unable  to  earn  sufficient  food  on  the  estates,  and  preferred  the  regular 
rations  of  the  gaol,  though  accompanied  by  shot-drill  and  confinenieiit. 


APPENDIX.  333 

little  over  two  per  cent.,  is  hardly  above  the  ordinary  European 
average.  But  the  returns  give,  I  believe,  a  far  from  correct 
idea  of  the  actual  rate,  and  for  this  reason  that  no  account  is 
taken  of  deserters. 

112.  Many  who  have  deserted  from  their  estates,  chiefly 
from  inabiUty,*  but  some  of  course  from  want  of  will,  to  earn 
proper  sustenance,  in  the  hope  of  gaining  a  precarious  liveli- 
hood by  begging  and  stealing,  die  while  still  deserters.  These 
deaths  are  probably,  for  reasons  stated  below,  many  of  them 
not  known,  and  when  known,  do  not  enter  the  estates'  returns 
from  the  impossibility  of  identification. 

113.  It  is  well  known  that  but  a  very  small  number  of 
immigrants  have  left  the  country,  other  than  those  exported  by 
the  Government. 

114.  Some,  chiefly  Chinese,  have  gone  to  Surinam  and 
Trinidad,  but  these  are  known,  from  the  frequent  communica- 
tions between  the  two  countries  and  from  the  strict  watch  kept 
upon  outgoing  vessels,  to  be  very  few,  and  their  loss  has  been 
probably  more  than  compensated  by  immigration  from  the 
French  and  other  islands.  But  even  deducting  these,  and  the 
7,500  or  thereabout  who  have  returned  to  their  own  country, 
from  the  total  number  imported,  there  still  remains  an  enormous 
loss  to  be  accounted  for.  If  I  recollect  rightly,  about  79,000 
Indians  and  Chinese  have  been  imported,  to  which,  moreover, 
are  to  be  added  the  births,  which,  in  the  absence  of  statistics,  I 
put  down  at  15,000  during  the  twenty  years  of  immigration, 
and  yet  there  are  not  now  in  the  country  45,000  at  the  highest. 
The  death  returns  cannot  account  for  this  fearful  depopulation, 

•  Several  most  intelligent  Chinese,  one  of  them  havinf;  emigrated  free, 
being  in  a  position  which  gave  him  no  inthicement  to  speak  untruth  on  the 
subject,  has  told  me  that  three-fourths  of  the  Chinese  labourers  imported 
from  Canton  were  artizans  and  other  workmen  who  had  never  been  accus- 
tomed to  out-door  labour,  and  had  been  informed  in  China  that  they  would 
be  allowed  to  follow  their  trades  in  British  Guiana.  These  are  the  people 
who  find  it  impossible  to  earn  sufficient  sustenance  from  labour  in  the  sun, 
and  become  deserters  and  thieves.  This  remark  holds  good  in  a  less 
degree  of  labourers  imported  from  the  other  Chinese  ports,  and  even  in  the 
same  degree  of  the  Indians.  I  am  satisfied  from  a  general  concurrence  of 
testimony  that  a  large  amount  of  imposition  has  at  one  time  or  another 
been  practised  upon  them,  and  that  their  condition  in  British  Guiana  has 
been  a  grievous  disappointment  to  all  the  Chinese  and  very  many  of  th« 
Others. 


334  APPENDIX. 

and,  it  not,  it  becomes  certain  that  from  some  cause  or  other 
they  are  not  accurate. 

1 13.  These  figiues  alone,  if  there  were  no  other  proof,  would 
serve  to  show  that  the  lot  of  the  immigrants  in  British  Guiana 
has  not  been  an  easy  one. 

116.  3rd.  The  6,000  who  have  returned  to  India  have  un 
doubtedly  taken  with  them  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  there  is 
also  a  very  considerable  sum  remaining  in  the  country  belonging 
to  Indian  Coolies,*  being  invested  in  stock,  gold  and  silver  orna- 
ments, and  other  kinds  of  property.  But  one  who  knows  the 
habits  and  saving  disposition  of  the  Coolies,  and  at  the  same 
time  considers  the  amount  which  should  have  been  earned  by 
them  during  the  twenty  years  of  immigration,  is  astonished,  not 
at  the  large  amount  saved,  but  at  its  comparative  littleness. 

117.  A  very  low  estimate  of  the  amount  actually  earned  by 
the  65,000  Indian  Coolies  imported  during  twenty  years  and 
their  children  would  be  ;^3,ooo,ooo,t  considering  that  the 
value  of  the  sugar,  rum,  and  molasses  made  mainly  by  them 
is  little  under  ;^2,ooo,ooo  per  annum,  and  that  they  are  earn- 
ing at  the  present  moment  at  least  _;j^30o,ooo  per  annum,  that 
39,000  had  been  already  imported  in  1861,  and  that  wages 
have  greatly  fallen  since  their  first  introduction. 

118.  The  Emigration  Commissioners'  Report  states  the 
amount  taken  away  by  return  Coolies  up  to  1867  at  about 
_;^  1 04,000.  Allowing  for  omissions  in  that,  for  money  taken 
away  in  the  last  two  years,  and  for  the  value  of  property  in  the 
houses  of  Coolies  still  in  the  country,  I  am  sure  that  ;^3oo,ooo 
would  be  a  very  high  estimate  for  the  whole  amount  of  property 
realised,  because  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  richer  Coolies 
return  to  India  when  they  have  the  opportunity,  and  I  know 
that  a  majority  of  those  left  behind  possess  nothing  at  all. 

119.  But  from  this  _;^3oo,ooo  must  be  deducted  at  least 

*  For  reasons  which,  if  your  Lordship  should  desire,  I  will  explain  in  a 
future  letter,  only  a  small  fraction  of  Chinese  leave  any  property  whatever, 
and  the  few  exceptions  are  chiefly  gaming-house  keepers,  "  divers,"  and 
perhaps  a  dozen  small  shopkeepers, 

t  Supposing  the  amount  of  Indian  Coolies  in  the  country  to  be  now 
38,000,  and  allowing  8,000  for  ineffectives,  such  as  prisoners,  side,  iic, 
who  are  supported  by  others,  this  would  only  afford  b\d.  per  head  for  food 
and  clothing,  whereas  the  Government,  buying  at  wholesale  prices,  cannot 
feed  its  prisoners  at  less  than  %d.  per  day. 


APPENDIX.  335 

;£,  50,000  for  profit  made  on  savings,  much  of  them  being 
invested  in  cattle  and  other  profitable  securities,  so  that  the 
actual  saving  would  be  only  ;^25o,ooo,  or  \d.  per  \s.  of  the 
whole  amount  earned. 

120.  No  one  who  knows  the  extremely  meagre  diet  of  the 
Coolies  and  the  penurious  habits  of  the  great  majority  of  them, 
could  consider  such  a  saving  as  any  argument  for  their  general 
prosperity. 

121.  I  believe  that  a  careful  inquiry  into  this  subject  would 
show  that  property  has  almost  entirely  been  realised  by  the 
exceptionally  strong,  and  that  the  many  die  prematurely  and 
penniless. 

122.  Your  Lordship,  if  you  should  have  been  kindly  induced 
to  read  this  lengthy  communication  (which  I  would  most  gladly 
have  abridged  if  I  had  found  it  possible  to  do  so  with  justice 
to  the  subject)  will,  I  fear,  think  that  I  have  produced  a  picture 
over-coloured  as  a  whole,  and  incorrect  in  delineation  and 
detail. 

123.  I  can  only  say  that  I  have  anxiously  endeavoured  not 
to  do  so,  and  I  firmly  believe  that  if  the  whole  truth  could  be 
unveiled  my  case  would  be  found  under  rather  than  overstated. 

124.  I  am  quite  prepared  to  bear  the  grave  responsibility  of 
all  I  have  said,  and  if,  as  I  fear  will  one  day  be  necessary,  a 
Commission  of  Inquiry  should  be  appointed,  I  shall  be  ready 
and  willing  to  produce  strong  evidence  in  proof  of  my  facts  and 
in  support  of  my  opinions. 

125.  There  is  a  gentleman  said  to  be  on  his  way  to  England 
who  formerly  governed  British  Guiana  \  I  mean  Sir  Philip 
Wodehouse.  I  only  know  him  from  his  reputation  and  his 
legislation.  From  these,  however,  especially  from  the  ordinance 
passed  by  him  which  took  away  all  summary  jurisdiction  from 
the  ordinary  justices  of  the  peace,  I  feel  sure  that  he  had 
already  begun  to  see  the  germs  of  evils  which  have  been 
greatly  aggravated  since  his  time. 

126.  Though  for  this  reason  he  would  of  course  not  be  able 
to  support  my  statements  to  their  full  extent,  I  am  confident 
tliat  if  your  Lordship  should  see  fit  to  lay  this  letter  before  him 
he  would  allow  the  possibility  and  even  perhaps  the  probability 
of  their  truth. 

127.  Should  Sir  Francis  Hincks,  the  late  Governor,  be  of  a 


336  APPENDIX. 

contrary  opinion,  and  I  presume  from  his  administration  and 
legislation,  which  obtained  for  him  so  great  a  popularity  among 
the  planters,  that  he  would  be,  I  can  confidently  refer  to  a 
great  number  of  the  clergy  of  all  denominations  in  support  of 
my  statements.  The  Bishop,  with  whom  I  have  always  been 
on  very  intimate  terms,  and  who,  though  he  has  not  had  any 
opportunities  of  being  behind  the  scenes,  and,  having  been 
formerly  a  plantation  proprietor  himself,  is  inclined  to  look 
upon  planters'  failings  with  a  somewhat  lenient  eye,  I  know 
agrees  with  me  to  a  great  extent,  and  would,  at  all  events,  give 
me  credit  for  sincerity. 

128.  The  present  Governor  has  been  so  short  a  time  in  the 
colony  that  it  is  impossible  he  can  have  yet  seen  all  the  evils 
pointed  out,  or  any  to  their  full  extent,  and  his  position  must 
always  screen  from  him  many  of  them.  But  I  know  that  he 
has  already  discovered  some  of  them,  and  was  meditating  their 
alleviation  or  removal. 

129.  From  few  others  could  the  whole  truth  within  their 
knowledge  be  obtained  unless  they  were  put  upon  oath.  For 
practically  there  are  no  educated  men  in  the  country  who  are 
not  directly  or  indirectly  either  dependent  for  their  livelihood 
on,  or  under  the  control  and  influence  of,  the  planters. 

130.  The  Portuguese  merchants  and  shopkeepers,  and  the 
Creole  peasant  proprietors,  who  form  the  only  independent 
class,  are  almost  wholly  illiterate,  the  first  entirely  so. 

131.  The  exclusive  powers*  of  the  planters  in  the  legisla- 
ture, added  to  their  other  influence,  make  the  whole  body  of 
pubUc  officers,  and  even  the  clergy  in  colonial  pay,  in  awe  of 
them,  especially  since  their  success  against  the  late  Chief 
Justice. 

132.  But  two  public  officers  whom  I  have  already  mentioned, 
one  well  known,  the  other  personally  unknown  to  me,  I  believe 
to  be  sufficiently  high-minded  to  speak  out  what  they  know, 
and  their  knowledge  of  the  subjects  on  which  I  have  treated  is 
interior  to  none,  their  respective  duties  having  given  them 
peculiar  means   of  acquiring   it.     I   mean   Mr.    Crosby,   the 


*  I  mean  representative  powers,  the  Gove  nor  being,  if  he  desires, 
ahnost  absolute,  through  the  interest  which  he  can  exercise  over  iranai- 
gration. 


APPENDIX.  337 

Immigration  Agent-General,  and  Dr.  Shier,  the  Inspector  of 
Estates'  Hospitals. 

133.  The  reforms  which  I  have  suggested  I  beheve  to  be 
absolutely  necessary,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  justice,  and  of  the 
comfort  and  happiness  of  the  labouring  classes,  but  for  the 
interests  of  the  whole  colony,  and  especially  to  secure  the 
public  peace,  which  has  already  been  so  seriously  threatened 
as  to  alarm*  the  planters  themselves.  They  could  not  be 
achieved,  of  course,  without  strenuous  opposition  and  some 
difficulty,  nor  at  first  without  expense.  But  the  expense  would 
be  trifling  compared  with  the  ultimate  gain,  and  the  difficulty 
and  opposition  would  be  readily  overcome  by  a  Government 
which  is  or  might  be  so  absolute  as  that  of  British  Guiana. 

134.  Should  these  reforms,  or  others  better  adapted  to 
secure  the  same  ends,  proceeding  from  your  Lordship's  riper 
judgment  and  more  extended  experience,  be  accomplished 
through  your  intervention,  not  only  will  an  enormous  boon  be 
at  once  conferred  upon  140,000  out  of  the  150,000  people  in 
the  colony,  but  the  ultimate  gain  to  the  whole  community 
would  be  such  as  to  cause  you  to  look  back  upon  them  in 
after  days  as  not  the  least  among  the  successes  of  your  colonial 
administration. 

I  have,  &c., 

(Signed)  G.  DES  VCEUX, 

Administrator  of  the  Government  of  St.  Lucia. 


The  Right  Honourable 

The  Earl  Granville,  K.G. 


*  This  is  shown  by  the  meeting  in  London,  mentioned  above,  and 
strongly  confirmed  by  a  gentleman,  Mr.  Clementson,  previously  menlioncd, 
as  one  of  the  most  successful  and  humane,  and  I  believe  one  of  the  most 
intelligent  planters  in  the  Colony.  In  a  visit  to  me  the  other  day  lie 
informed  me  that  he  was  seriously  contemplating  the  s.de  of  his  estate 
{which,  owing  to  the  want  of  capital,  would  probably  not  rea'ise  more  than 
five  years'  profit),  owing  to  his  belief  in  approaching  troubles  among  the 
Coolies. 

Z 


338 


'APPENDIX  B. 


THE  agricultural  and  other  labourers  of  the  colony  who  are 
employed  in  the  cultivation  of  the  sugar-cane  and  the 
manufacture  of  sugar  belong  to  four  distinct  races — the  Portu- 
guese, Africans,  East  Indian,  and  Chinese. 

The  Portuguese  formerly  worked  a  great  deal  on  estates,  but 
have  taken  more  to  trade  now,  and  very  few  are  to  be  found 
working  on  plantations.  Being  as  a  class  industrious  and  frugal, 
some  of  them  have  amassed  large  fortunes  in  the  colony. 

Besides  shop-keeping,  many  of  them  have  taken  to  wood- 
cutting, at  which  they  excel. 

In  the  African  race  we  include  African  immigrants  and  the 
Creole  Negroes  of  the  West  Indies. 

There  is  no  class  of  field  labourers  in  the  colony  who  can 
earn  as  much  at  field  labour,  in  a  given  time,  as  the  Negro. 
He  generally  works  for  a  greater  number  of  hours  during  the 
day  than  the  East  Indian.  When  working  by  the  task  he  gets 
through  his  work  with  great  speed,  and,  if  allowed,  with  great 
carelessness.  When  employed  at  trenching,  or  other  work  that 
he  likes,  he  generally  works  from  eight  to  ten  hours  a  day,  but 
seldom  works  more  than  three  or  four  days  in  the  week.  He 
prefers  living  in  his  own  house  to  living  on  an  estate,  rent  free, 
as  he  does  not  care  to  turn  out  regularly  to  work,  and  knows 
that  living  in  a  house  belonging  to  the  proprietor  means  con- 
tinuous labour,  to  which  he  has  a  decided  objection. 

Continuous  labour  here  generally  means  four  or  five  days' 
work  in  the  field,  and  six  in  the  buildings,  when  they  are  at 
work.  This  objection  of  the  Negro  to  reside  on  the  estate  has, 
to  a  certain  extent,  made  him  independent  of  his  employer 


APPENDIX.  339 

fact  which  the  legislature  has  made  use  of  in  regulating  the 
wages  to  be  paid  to  indentured  immigrants. 

Several  years  after  emancipation,  when  the  prospects  of  sugar 
estates  were  very  bad,  some  proprietors  sold  their  estates,  or 
the  front  lands  of  them,  to  the  Negroes,  who  clubbed  together 
and  found  the  money  to  purchase  them.  This  was  at  a  time 
when  wages  were  so  high  that  it  would  have  been  ruin  to  their 
employers  to  continue  their  cultivation.  On  these  estates 
villages  have  been  built,  and  here  large  numbers  of  Negroes 
reside,  going  out  to  work  on  the  neighbouring  estates,  under 
the  direction  of  one  of  their  own  body,  who  is  generally  called 
the  task  gang-driver.  The  man  contracts  with  the  manager  or 
proprietor  of  the  estate  to  do  certain  work  for  him  at  a  given 
rate.  When  the  work  is  completed  he  receives  the  money  in  a 
lump  from  the  employer,  and  settles  with  his  people  himself. 
On  this  amount  he  receives  a  percentage  or  commission  for  his 
superintendence.  Most  of  the  trenching  and  cane-cutting  work 
is  done  by  the  Negro,  though  some  Coolies  and  Chinese  are 
pretty  good  hands  at  it. 

On  tl  e  day  when  the  Negro  is  not  at  work  on  estates,  he 
general!)  goes  to  his  garden,  if  he  has  one,  for  a  few  hours. 
Negro  women,  when  they  work  on  estates,  are  generally  em- 
ployed weeding,  carrying  megass  or  potted  sugar.  By  far  the 
greater  number  of  artisans  employed  throughout  the  colony — of 
the  police,  of  the  sailors  of  coasting  craft,  of  jobber  or  porters 
about  the  wharves,  and  of  the  boatmen  on  the  rivers — are 
Negroes.  Some  of  them  have  come  from  neighbouring  colo- 
nies- the  field  being  open  to  all  who  choose  to  take  advan- 
tage of  it.  The  Negro  at  present  com[)lains  that  he  is  not  paid 
for  his  work  as  he  used  to  be  shortly  after  the  emancipation, 
or,  as  one  of  the  witnesses  expressed  himself,  cannot  now  earn 
nine  or  ten  dollars  a  week — that  is  to  say,  he  cannot  now  get 
a  price  for  his  labour  which  was  then  and  still  would  be  simjjly 
ruinous  to  the  employer.  In  this  sense  it  is  true  that  he  has 
lost  the  command  of  the  labour  market  just  in  time  to  jjrevent 
him  from  driving  cai)ital  out  of  the  country.  Had  the  golden 
age  coi.iinued,  which  the  old  labourers  regret,  it  would  not 
have  beei.  for  their  advantage.  Exjjerience  has  shown  that  the 
Negro  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  that  the  pressure  of  social 
order  and  the  stimulus  of  the  comjjetition  which  capital  sup- 


340  APPENDIX. 

plies  are  necessary  elements  in  the  condition  of  things  best 
suited  to  develop  the  human  character. 

Relieved  from  this  pressure,  his  tendency  is  to  sink  back 
into  a  less  civilised  state.  In  British  Guiana,  of  all  places, 
which  is  only  kept  habitable,  like  Holland,  by  means  of  a 
system  of  artificial  drainage,  such  as  requires  either  the  organi- 
zation of  large  properties,  or  else  a  high  standing  of  aptitude 
for  co-operation  in  the  cultivator,  the  substitution  of  small  free- 
hold in  the  hands  of  Negroes  for  the  directing  mind  at  the  head 
of  a  great  sugar  estate  has  always,  as  yet,  had  the  result  of 
sending  the  plantation  out  of  cultivation. 

The  class  of  Indian  immigrants  at  present  in  the  colony,  as  a 
rule,  cannot  earn  more  than  half  as  much  in  the  same  time  as 
the  Negro  ;  their  love  of  saving  and  desire  to  return  to  their 
own  country,  rather  than  a  wish  to  make  themselves  comfortable 
during  their  temporary  absence  from  the  land  of  their  birth, 
induces  them  to  work.  It  often  happens  that  men  are  sent 
out  who  have  never  been  accustomed  to  agricultural  labour. 
The  result  is,  that  they  become  in  many  cases  discontented 
with  their  lot,  and  when  sent  into  the  field  do  hardly  anything, 
or,  as  the  planters  say,  "  hang  over  their  work."  The  Indian 
immigrant  generally  works  in  the  field  six  or  seven  hours  a  day 
when  engaged  at  task  work,  and  for  four  days  a  week,  some 
work  five,  and  when  in  the  building  six  days.  The  Indian  does 
not  much  care  to  cultivate  land ;  his  great  object  in  life  seems 
to  be  to  amass  sufficient  money  to  buy  a  c  .w.  The  Coolie, 
after  he  has  been  here  for  some  time,  gives  up  to  a  great  extent 
the  habit  of  saluting  his  superiors  that  he  has  on  arrival  here, 
and  becomes  much  more  independent  in  his  bearing.  The 
difference  of  bearing  between  immigrants  about  to  return  to 
India  and  those  who  have  just  arrived  in  this  colony  is  very 
marked  in  this  respect.  The  Indian  is  very  much  given  to 
romancing ;  when  he  has  a  complaint  to  make  he  is  apt  to  mix 
so  much  that  is  false  with  what  is  true,  that  it  requires  great 
patience  to  separate  the  truth  from  the  falsehood.  In  this  way 
the  Indian  who  has  a  real  grievance  to  complain  of  very  often 
spoils  his  own  case,  or  disgusts  the  person  investigating  it. 
Accustomed  to  be  dependent  on  others  in  India,  it  is  not  till 
some  time  after  his  arrival  in  the  colony  that  he  learns  to  take 
care   of  himself     As  a  rule,  he  will   not  marry  or  live  with 


APPENDIX.  341 

persons  of  a  dififerent  race  from  himself  There  are,  however, 
some  instances  in  the  colony  where  a  Coolie  man  or  woman 
has  married  a  Chinese  or  Negro.  On  Adelphi  Estate,  a  China- 
man was  living  with  a  Madrassee.  On  Windsor  Castle,  a  Negro 
woman  was  living  with  an  East  Indian.  The  Coolie  despises 
the  Negro,  because  he  considers  him  a  being  not  so  highly 
civilised  as  himself;  while  the  Negro  in  turn  despises  the 
Coolie,  because  he  is  so  immensely  inferior  to  him  in  physical 
strength.  There  never  will  be  much  danger  of  seditious  dis- 
turbances among  East  Indian  immigrants  on  estates  as  long 
as  large  numbers  of  Negroes  continue  to  be  employed  with 
them. 

The  Chinese  labourer  possesses  greater  intelligence  than 
either  the  Indian  or  the  Negro,  and  is  much  quicker  at  learning 
to  manage  machinery  than  either  of  them.  He  is  also  very 
careful  and  neat  in  his  work  in  the  field  or  building ;  is  much 
more  independent  than  the  Coolie,  and  not  so  easily  led  away 
by  discontented  persons ;  rarely  making  a  frivolous  com- 
plaint, though  when  he  does  make  one  it  i?  false  ;  it  is  much 
more  difficult  to  convict  him  of  lying,  from  the  extreme  inge- 
nuity with  which  he  gets  up  his  case  and  instructs  his  witnesses. 
Possessing  a  keen  sense  of  justice  where  his  own  rights  are 
concerned,  he  is  very  capable  of  strong  resentment  at  anything 
that  appears  to  him  unjust.  They  are  much  more  given  to 
using  knives  and  pointed  weapons  than  the  Indian,  who  gene- 
rally trusts  in  a  riot  to  breaking  his  opponent's  head  with 
hackia  stick. 

The  Chinese  as  a  class  are  inveterate  gamblers  and  opium- 
smokers.  In  their  barracks  they  generally  have  a  room  set 
apart  as  a  gambling  saloon,  where,  as  well  as  in  their  own 
rooms,  they  smoke  opium. 

The  Chinaman  here  does  not  .save  as  much  money  as  the 
Indian.  This  is,  perhaps,  owing  to  tlie  fact  that  he  is  not  content 
with  such  meagre  diet  as  the  Indian,  and  has  been  accustomed 
to  richer  and  more  varied  food.  Oijium-smoking  is  carried  by 
some  to  great  excess,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  many  of 
them  fjuile  emaciated  and  almost  unfit  for  work  from  excessive 
use  of  this  drug.  We  have  occasionally  seen  Chinese  in  estates' 
hospitals  who  have  been  there  for  years  from  some  chronic 
disease,  and  whom  the  employer  has  not  only  to  feed,  but 


342  APPENDIX. 

supply  with  opium,  the  stoppage  of  which  would  cause  their 
death.  The  wretched  api)eaiance  of  some  of  the  votaries  of 
this  habit  has  more  than  once  misled  strangers  into  conclusions 
unfair  to  the  planters  and  the  immigration  system.  It  appears, 
unhappily,  that  opium-smoking  is  not  altogether  confined  to 
the  Chinese.  A  few  Indians  have  picked  up  this  habit  from 
them.  The  mischief  is  perhaps  beyond  the  reach  of  legislation  ; 
but  such  was  not  the  opinion  of  a  Chinaman,  one  of  the  cleverest 
met  with  in  the  colony,  who  allowed,  when  asked  why  his  fel- 
low-countrymen, who  earned  so  much,  had  saved  so  little,  "  that 
they  spent  a  good  deal  on  opium  ;  but  it  was  the  English  ship 
that  brought  it  here."  Chinese  are  more  given  to  deserting 
than  Indians,  and  employers  are  getting  chary  of  giving  them 
bounty,  as  they  often  abscond  immediately  after  receiving  it. 
They  have  not  the  same  objection  to  living  with  females  of  a 
different  race  from  themselves  that  Indians  have.  This  may  be 
owing  in  some  degree  to  the  small  proportion  of  women  who 
have  emigrated  from  China ;  but  the  principal  reason  for  it  is 
that  the  Chinese  have  not  the  difficulty  of  caste  to  get  over  that 
the  Indian  has,  and  are  more  cosmopolitan  in  tlieir  habits. 
The  Chinese,  as  far  as  we  are  aware,  have  never  combined  with 
the  Indians  in  disturbances  on  estates  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  occasionally  taken  the  side  of  the  employer  in  opposing 
them.  They  are  more  given  to  cultivating  land  and  keeping 
pigs  than  breeding  cattle.  They  are  now  getting  into  a  habit 
in  some  places  of  going  about  in  the  manner  of  task  gangs, 
living  on  the  estates  on  which  they  are  working  for  the  time 
being. 

Many  of  them  sent  here  turned  out  to  be  persons  who  ought 
never  to  have  been  recruited.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that 
in  places  where  the  Chinaman  has  other  careers  open  to 
him  besides  that  of  working  as  a  field-labourer  for  wages,  he 
invariably  chooses  one  where  he  can  work  for  himself.  He 
either  rents  a  piece  of  ground  near  town,  or  starts  a  provision 
or  retail  shop  as  soon  as  possible. 

This  is  the  case  at  Singapore,  at  Penang,  to  which  great 
numbers  of  Chinamen  emigrate,  returning  again,  when  they 
have  made  money,  with  their  children,  but  leaving  behind  them 
the  Malay  mothers.  One  of  the  complaints  made  to  us  here 
by  Chinese  was  that  there  was  no  other  employment  open  to 


APPENDIX.  343 

them  but  estates'  work ;  and,  when  it  is  considered  that  the 
Portuguese,  from  their  prior  introduction,  have  a  complete 
monopoly  of  the  retail  trade  of  the  colony,  that  crown  lands 
cannot  be  purchased  in  blocks  of  less  than  one  hundred  acres, 
and  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  private  lands  for  sale,  their 
complaint  seems  to  be  well  founded. 


344 


APPENDIX  C. 
REVIEW  OF  im:migration. 

THE  State-aided  immigration  into  British  Guiana  is  a  plant 
of  new  growth.  It  has  existed  in  various  progressive  stages 
of  organization  for  a  period  of  thirty  years.  It  began  simulta- 
neously with  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  The  Act  of  Abo- 
lition of  Slavery  in  1834  contemplated  an  apprenticeship  of 
six  years,  during  which  the  slaves  might  be  educated  for  free- 
dom, and  the  masters  might  provide  for  the  contingency  of 
their  withdrawal  from  field  labour.  The  first  idea  was  to  gather 
up  and  import  surplus  population  from  the  West  Indian  colonies, 
especially  liberated  Africans  from  the  Bahamas,  where  captured 
slaves  were  condemned.  As  early  as  1836  an  "African  Emi- 
gration Ordinance  "  was  passed,  as  Avell  as  a  Colonial  Indenture 
Ordinance  to  enable  private  individuals  importing  labourers  at 
their  own  expense  to  retain  them  under  an  indenture  of  servi- 
tude, according  to  contract  for  a  period  of  years.  But  although 
it  was  long  before  the  fact  was  recognised,  et'cry  importation 
of  African  blood,  whether  Aboriginal  or  West  Indian,  has  from 
the  first  regularly  disappointed  its  promoters.  The  causes  are  no 
doubt  the  same  as  those  which  have  prevented  the  planters 
from  retaining  the  continuous  service  of  the  Creoles  of  African 
descent.  They  lie  partly  in  the  character  of  the  Negro,  and 
partly  in  the  incapacity  of  the  old  labour  system  for  adaptation 
to  a  state  of  things  in  which  the  labourers  had  become  free. 

The  employers  did  not,  however,  confine  themselves  to  the 
African  blood.  In  1838  the  first  ship-load  of  Coolies  was 
brought  over  from  Calcutta  by  private  enterprise. 

In  the  very  same  year  the  apprenticeship  of  the  slaves 
was  cut  short,  as  regards  prsedial  labourers,  two  years  before 
the  term  of  its  expiration.     Taken  by  surprise  at  the  rapidity  of 


APPENDIX.  345 

events,  unable  to  resist  the  current  of  opinion  in  England, 
which  had  set  in  irresistibly  against  every  vestige  of  slavery, 
and  distrusting  their  power  to  retain  the  freedmen  in  their 
service,  the  planters  of  British  Guiana  now  commenced  a  series 
of  efforts  to  replenish  the  labour  market  by  systematic  immi- 
gration under  the  auspices  of  the  Government.  In  1830  reso- 
lutions in  favour  of  a  general  scheme  of  immigration  were 
adopted  by  the  Court  of  Policy.  It  was  commonly  agreed  at 
this  time  that  if  conducted  on  an  extensive  scale,  the  business 
ought  not  to  be  abandoned  to  individual  effort,  and  in  the 
next  year  (1839)  the  first  general  Immigration  Ordinance  was 
passed,  and  a  proposal  entertained  for  a  loan  of  ^^400, 000,  to 
be  expended  upon  passage  money  and  premiums.  The  loan 
met  with  opposition  from  the  Governor  and  a  party  within  the 
colony,  and  the  ordinance,  which  was  a  very  imperfect  one, 
was  disallowed  in  England,  and  never  came  into  operation. 

This  was  the  commencement  of  a  struggle  between  the 
colony  and  the  Home  Government  as  to  the  conditions  upon 
which  immigration  was  to  be  conducted,  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  scale  of  it  was  to  be  fixed  from  year  to  year.  With 
the  immigration  question  was  mixed  up,  to  the  great  hindrance 
of  a  speedy  settlement,  the  inveterate  colonial  controversy  about 
the  renewal  of  the  "  Civil  List."  The  object  of  the  Home 
Government  at  this  time  was  to  secure  that  the  amount  to  be 
expentied  on  immigration  should  be  regulated  by  the  Governor, 
before  whom  the  interest  of  all  classes  were  on  an  equal  footing, 
rather  than  by  the  Combined  Court,  a  quasi-rrpreseiitative  body, 
which  reflects  ofily  the  views  of  the  landed  proprietors  or  planters. 
It  was  desired  by  this  means  to  retain  in  the  hands  of  the 
Governor  the  power  of  at  any  time  putting  a  complete  stop  to 
immigradon,  in  case  any  conditions  thought  necessary  to  secure 
the  welfare  of  the  immigrant  should  not  be  complied  with.  In 
particular,  the  maximum  number  to  be  introduced  in  any  one 
year,  and  the  ports  from  which  immigration  was  to  be  allowed, 
were  reserved  as  points  in  the  discretion  of  the  Governor. 
The  efforts  of  the  colonists  were  directed  in  part  against  this 
governmental  control  of  the  ex])enditure,  but  even  more  strenu- 
ously to  obtain  immigration  without  limit  as  to  the  places  from 
which  the  immigrants  should  come.  Africa  was  still  the  field 
from  which  most  was  expected,  and  India  began  to  assume  tlie 


346  APPENDIX. 

first  place  only  when  it  was  found  that  the  Home  Government 
was  unalterably  determined  not  to  allow  its  efforts  to  suppress 
the  slave-trade  to  be  neutralized  by  permitting  labourers  to  be 
recruited  upon  African  soil. 

Besides  the  disallowed  Ordinance  of  1839,  one  passed  by 
Sir  Henry  McLeod  in  1841,  as  a  part  of  his  negotiations 
when  settling  the  Civil  List,  was  objected  to  by  the  Home 
Government.  By  the  time  this  ordinance  had  been  amended, 
and  came  home  a  second  time  for  confirmation,  the  Home 
Government  had  by  degrees  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
immigration  (still  exclusively  African)  must  be  not  merely 
supervised  but  conducted  by  the  State  in  vessels  specially 
hired  and  licensed  for  the  purpose.  Accordingly  the  Ordinance 
of  1842,  though  it  complied  in  every  respect  with  requirements 
hitherto  made,  was  not  confirmed.  The  colony  therefore  set  to 
work  again,  and  passed  an  entirely  new  ordinance  providing 
for  the  expenses  to  be  incurred  by  the  Home  Government  in 
conducting  the  African  immigration,  and  other  matters,  of  a 
more  definite  character  than  hitherto  had  been  contemplated. 
This  ordinance,  when  once  more  amended,  was  finally  con- 
firmed, and  became  the  first  final  settlement,  though  a  partial 
one  only,  of  a  system  of  immigration  destined  actually  to  be 
put  in  practice. 

In  the  meantime,  events  had  occurred  in  the  colony  pointing 
out  too  plainly  the  dangers  which  beset  the  course  now  fairly 
entered  upon.  A  vigorous  attempt  had  been  made  to  procure 
immigrants  without  the  aid  of  the  State  and  without  the  sanction 
of  an  ordinance,  the  expense  to  be  defrayed  partly  out  of  a  fund 
raised  by  subscription,  and  partly  by  a  fee  to  be  paid  for  each 
indentured  labourer  by  his  destined  employer.  A  society  was 
formed  in  1839  for  the  purpose,  which  procured  2,900  labourers 
from  Barbadoes,  and  thirty  from  the  United  States.  The  scheme, 
however,  notwithstanding  the  spirit  with  which  it  was  started, 
proved  a  failure  ultimately  in  more  respects  than  one.  The 
promoters  quarrelled  among  themselves,  the  money  contributed 
was  wasted,  and  the  immigrants  became  speedily  absorbed  into 
the  mass  of  the  village  population.  Very  many  of  them,  bad 
characters  to  begin  with,  found  their  way  before  long  into  the 
colonial  gaols. 

Again,  in  1841,  during  the  temporary  operation  of  the  Im- 


APPENDIX. 


347 


migration  Ordinance  of  that  date,  which,  as  before  noticed, 
failed  of  confirmation  in  England,  bounty  was  paid  on  8,098 
newly-arrived  immigrants.  Of  these,  4,3 1 2  were  Portuguese  from 
Madeira,  and  598  from  Brazil.  This  Portuguese  immigration  had 
set  in  in  a  natural  manner  a  few  years  before  ;  but  was  now  found 
capable  of  indefinite  extension  under  the  stimulus  of  premiums 
by  way  of  bounty  to  importers.  Unhappily,  most  melancholy 
results  followed,  upon  what  was,  in  fact,  a  premature  attempt 
to  carry  on  without  system  the  most  diffiadt  of  all  econoimcal 
operatUms,  the  transfer^  namely,  of  a  labouring  population  by 
wholesale.  The  mortality  among  the  Portuguese,  a  race  hardly 
apt  to  labour,  and  reared  in  a  climate  more  nearly  resembling 
that  of  Guiana  than  many  others,  but  turned  loose  into  the 
fields  under  the  stimulus  of  task  work  at  high  wages,  and  fed 
upon  unusual  food,  Avithout  proper  supervision  or  medical 
resources,  was  appalling  to  the  community  that  had  invited 
them.  It  became  necessary,  in  May,  1842,  to  put  a  temporary 
stop  to  this  particular  immigration ;  not  before  the  Governor 
had  found  himself  obliged  to  communicate  with  the  Portuguese 
authorities  with  a  view  of  checking  the  influx.  In  October  of 
the  same  year  the  public  immigration  under  the  disallowed  Act 
of  1 841  came  to  an  end. 

The  annual  arrivals  now  fell  to  a  few  hundreds,  and  consisted 
of  Portuguese  paying  their  own  passage-money,  and  of  liberated 
Africans  imported  directly  by  the  British  Government.  This 
African  importation  proved  an  economic  failure.  It  was  com- 
puted that  thirty-two  African  boys,  who  arrived  in  1843  in  the 
first  vessel  chartered  by  the  Government,  the  Arabian,  had 
cost  the  colony  f[^^2  \s.  ?>d.  per  head,  and  the  numbers  intro- 
duced in  the  years  1843,  1844,  and  1845,  amounting  to  only 
2,128  in  all,  might  well  seem  insufficient  to  meet  the  growing 
necessities  of  the  plantations.  Africa,  the  natural  recruiting- 
ground  of  cultivators  in  the  tropical  regions  of  the  Atlantic 
basin,  had  been  closed  thirty-two  years  before  emancipation  by 
the  aboHtion  of  the  slave-trade;  and  now,  thirty-two  years 
after,  still  remained  closed,  as  if  by  way  of  purgation  for  her 
ancient  wrongs,  and  at  all  events  as  a  necessary  precaution 
against  its  renewal.  12,000  of  the  rescued  slaves,  the  legitimate 
fruit  of  that  costly  African  scjuadron  which  humanity  has  so 
long  induced  Great  Britain  to   maintain,  and  380   Kroomen, 


3+8  APPENDIX. 

make  up  all  the  contribution  as  yet  supplied  by  Africa  to  the 
labour  market  of  British  Guiana. 

It  had  become  necessary  to  look  further  for  a  field.  Three 
Acts  passed  in  1844,  by  the  first  of  which  provision  was  made 
for  a  Chinese  immigration  then  anticipated,  which,  however, 
came  to  nothing;  by  the  second,  the  provisions  already  in 
existence  were  extended  to  Asiatic  emigration  in  general ;  and 
by  the  third,  a  special  credit  of  ^75,000  was  opened  to  defray 
the  expense  of  importing  5,000  labourers  from  India. 

The  first-fruits  of  this  legislation  were  visible  the  next  year 
on  the  arrival  of  563  immigrants  from  Calcutta,  and  225  from 
Madras.  In  the  next  year  the  Portuguese  immigration  re- 
commenced, and  at  once  attained  its  maximum  ;  nearly  6,000 
arrived  at  once;  while  the  quota  from  India  leapt  up  to  1,373 
from  Calcutta,  and  2,455  from  Madras.  The  natural  result 
followed  on  this^  extreme  inflation  of  the  system,  and  once  more 
proved  the  absolute  necessity  of  circumspection  in  promoting 
by  artificial  means  the  migration  of  large  masses  of  people,  who 
became  colonists  not  spontaneously,  but  under  the  influence  of 
strong  persuasion,  and  facilities  carefully  provided.  The  ranks 
of  both  Portuguese  and  Coolies  were  ravaged  by  disease,  and 
literally  decimated  year  by  year  in  the  process  of  acclimatisa- 
tion. Sir  Henry  Light  stated  his  belief  to  the  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  one-fourth  of  the  people  from 
Madeira  had  died,  and  an  immense  number  of  the  Coolies. 
The  late  Mr.  M.  J.  Higgins,  then  a  landed  proprietor  in  the 
colony,  gave  an  independent  testimony  to  the  same  effect  in 
a  passage  of  his  evidence,  the  graphic  touch  in  which  it  is  even 
now  pamful  to  read.  "  A  good  many  of  the  Portuguese  died, 
and  a  good  many  of  the  Coolies  have  died;  fhey  wandered 
about  the  colony.  I  should  think  a  vast  number  have  died,  but 
I  have  no  means  of  stating  the  exact  number."  The  number 
who  so  perished,  in  fact,  never  can  be  known.  We  have 
grounds  for  believing  that  it  amounted  to  a  mortality  of  ten 
per  cent,  per  annum. 

With  regard  to  the  Madeirans,  the  numbers  introduced  up  to 
1S45  were  5,295;  between  1845  and  1851,  13,412;  making  a 
total  of  18,707.  The  census  of  1S51  showed  that  only  7,928 
remained  at  that  time  in  the  colony ;  but  a  considerable  num- 
ber had  returned  to  their  native  country,  and  it  is  impossible  to 


APPENDIX.  349 

ascertain  exactly  how  many.  No  certain  calculation  can  be 
founded  on  these  figures,  which  are,  notwithstanding,  suffi- 
ciently suggestive.  The  subsequent  history  of  these  people 
is  remarkable.  The  most  enterprising  of  them  did  not  stay 
long  on  the  estates  ;  on  many  estates  not  beyond  the  first 
monthly  expiration  of  their  hiring.  They  took  to  hawking 
cloth  and  other  goods,  and  supplying  the  necessities  of  their 
countrymen,  the  Creoles,  and  the  Asiatic  immigrants,  in  the 
way  of  retail  dealing.  Of  small  shops  there  was  a  great  defi- 
ciency in  the  country  districts  ;  the  Portuguese  stepped  in  and 
supplied  it.  By  degrees  the  bulk  of  those  who  were  left  on 
estates  followed  the  example  of  their  compatriots  ;  later  immi- 
grants went  with  them,  preferring  the  counter  to  the  canefield, 
and  the  colony  found  itself  endowed,  as  it  were  by  accident, 
with  a  frugal,  orderly,  and  intelligent  race  of  small  shop- 
keepers ;  a  great  boon  to  the  labouring  classes,  and  a  great 
advantage  to  all.  The  Portuguese  shop  is  a  regular  feature  at 
every  corner  of  a  street  in  a  Guiana  village,  and  upon  every 
estate;  and  it  is  said  that  they  have  in  their  hands  nine-tenths 
of  the  retail-trade  of  the  colony.  Certain  it  is,  that  not  even 
the  Chinese,  who  in  Singapore  and  many  other  places  are  the 
small  traders  of  the  community,  have  succeeded  in  ousting  this 
industrious  race  from  the  position  of  vantage  which  they  have 
created  for  themselves.  Few  of  them  have  made  fortunes, 
though  the  number  of  those  who  have  done  so  is  increasing  ; 
but  the  majority  of  them  are  rather  rising  than  sinking  in  the 
world,  and  it  is  evident  that  public  opinion  in  the  colony 
regards  tlicm  as  useful,  if  not  indispensable  members  of  the 
community. 

To  return  to  the  mortality  among  the  early  immigrants ;  it 
was  nothing  more  than  the  inevitable  result  of  throwing  large 
masses  of  uneducated  people  upon  their  own  resources,  sepa- 
rated from  all  they  were  used  to,  in  a  region  where  they  had 
not  the  slightest  means  of  realising  by  what  new  conditions, 
unfavourable  to  human  life,  they  were  surrounded.  But  there 
were  other  special  reasons  for  the  failure  of  the  Coolie  race  to 
become  speedily  acclimatised,  and  to  thrive  upon  the  estates. 
First,  the  climate  of  British  Guiana  is  unique;  and,  while  the 
inhabitants  are  comparatively  exempt  from  some  diseases,  they 
are  peculiarly  liable  to  others.     The  dilficulty  with  which  at 


350  APPENDIX. 

certain  seasons  the  skin  heals  from  any  slight  wound  is  often 
disagreeably  experienced  by  new  comers.  The  small  spines 
which  cluster  on  the  lower  part  of  the  leaves  of  the  sugar- 
canes,  the  stings  of  insects,  and  the  bites  of  chigoes  and  other 
vermin,  insignificant  in  themselves,  may,  with  neglect,  come  to 
produce  ulcers  affecting  life  and  limb.  Not  merely  medical 
advice  is  necessary  in  such  cases,  but  medical  superintendence, 
if  not  discipline ;  and  this  was  not  regularly  obtainable  on 
sugar  estates  in  the  early  days  of  immigration.  Novel  food, 
and  sometimes  a  deficiency  of  it,  continued  further  to  reduce 
the  standard  of  health ;  next,  the  immigrant  Coolies  were  not 
hardy  men,  accustomed  to  agriculture,  but  townsmen,  the  poorest 
naturally,  and  least  well-to-do  of  the  population  of  the  great 
cities  of  India;  consequently  unaccustomed  to  field  labour  and 
many  of  them  sickly,  puny,  and  incapable.  Next,  the  propor- 
tion of  the  sexes  was  two  to  one  in  favour  of  the  male,  and  this 
circumstance  was  unfavourable  to  family  life,  fostered  unsettled 
habits,  and  tended  to  lower  the  standard  of  mortality  and  con- 
sequently of  health.  The  women,  moreover,  were  for  the  most 
part  individuals  got  together  to  supply  the  statuary  quota  :  not 
the  natural  partners  of  the  men  who  volunteered  to  emigrate. 
Few  married  men  cared  to  come,  and  there  is  among  the  Coolie 
population  in  India  no  class  of  respectable  single  women.  The 
proportion  of  females  was  accordingly  made  up  "in  the  bazaars," 
and  results  were,  few  children  and  many  diseases.  Of  mis- 
conduct among  people  so  situated  it  is  not  ^\•orth  while  to 
speak,  no  doubt  the  standard  of  reliance  and  self-control  was 
lower  among  them  than  among  the  average  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  The  Madras  people  in  particular  suffered  from 
these  causes  to  a  degree  which  created  a  prejudice  against 
them  in  the  colony,  as  unfitted  to  stand  the  climate.  The  same 
thing  had  been  said,  under  hke  circumstances,  of  the  Portu- 
guese. A  greater  or  less  degree  of  care  in  the  recruiting  would, 
in  all  probability,  have  accounted  for  the  difference. 

But,  besides  these  causes,  the  planters  complained  that  in  the 
absence  of  a  special  indenture  or  contract  lasting  longer  than 
the  statutory  hiring  of  one  month,  they  had  no  hold  on  immi- 
grants allotted  to  them,  were  consequently  unable  to  supervise 
the  tedious  process  of  acclimatisation,  and  were  powerless  to 
lessen  the  existing  mortality.      Immigrants,  it  was  said,  are 


APPENDIX.  351 

natnrallv  sanguine.  Their  disappointment  at  finding  their 
situation  less  advantageous  than  they  had  pictured  to  them- 
selves, le;l  to  their  leaving  their  allotted  masters  so  soon  as  the 
first  monthly  hiring  expired.  As  yet  inexperienced  in  the 
country,  unbroken  to  the  labour,  and  unacclimatised,  they  took 
helplessly  to  a  wandering  life,  and  succumbed  to  the  hardships 
of  it  without  care  and  without  pity.  The  same  causes  operated 
to  perhaps  a  greater  extent  in  Trinidad,  whence  the  governor, 
Lord  Harris,  wrote  on  21st  February,  184S,  that  "scarcely  a 
week  passes  but  reports  are  sent  in  from  different  parts  of  the 
colony  of  the  skeletons  of  Coolies  bei?ig  found  in  the  woods  and 
cane  pieces  r  The  experience  thus  gained  led  to  an  ordinance, 
providing  medical  attendance  for  immigrants,  and  confirming 
the  institution  of  Estates  Hospitals  by  law.  Immigrants  not 
bound  to  labour  for  at  least  six  months  were  to  work  out  the 
cost  of  medicine  and  sustenance  when  well.  In  1848  a  further 
step  was  taken,  and  the  Home  Government  consented  to  allow 
the  indenture  for  three  years  certaifi  of  all  immigrants  thereafter 
introduced  under  this  ordinance.  But  before  this  Act  could 
come  into  operation,  the  immigration  from  India  was  stopped. 
No  new  Indian  immigrants  were  introduced  into  the  colony 
between  the  years  1848  and  185 1.  To  explain  this  we  must 
recur  to  the  pecuniary  side  of  the  cjuestion. 

The  vote  of  ;,^75,ooo  in  1844  from  the  colonial  revenues,  to 
provide  for  the  expenses  of  immigration,  was  intended  as  a  tem 
porary  measure,  waiting  the  confirmation  of  certain  Immigration 
Loan  Ordinances,  which  were  passed  along  with  the  other 
Immigration  Acts  of  the  year.  These,  however,  were  all  dis- 
allowed by  the  Home  Government ;  not  as  objecting  to  the 
principle  oi  such  a  loan,  but  because  of  words  in  the  preamble 
which  were  held  to  be  an  encroachment  on  the  royal  pre- 
rogative. This  matter  being  rectified,  the  immigration  loan  of 
;^5oo,ooo  was  finally  assented  to ;  and  Immigration  Loan 
Commissioners  were  ajjpointed,  with  power  to  raise  money  at 
5  per  cent.,  not  exceeding  ;^i 00,000  in  any  one  year,  on  the 
security  of  the  general  revenues  of  the  colony.  A  sinking  fund 
was  established,  and  the  taxes  on  agricultural  produce,  then 
leviable,  were  declared  permanent,  and  es])ccially  set  apart  to 
meet  the  interest  and  redemijtion  charges  of  the  debt.  The 
credit  of  the  colony  declining  with  the  increasing  difticulties  of 


352  APPENDIX. 

the  planters,  amending  Acts  became  necessary,  to  authorise  a 
higher  rate  of  interest  and  the  sale  of  bonds  below  par. 

Whatever  modification  time  may  have  produced  in  the  views 
with  which  the  English  commercial  legislation  of  1845 — 1846 
is  regarded  in  the  West  Indies,  no  man  can  deny  that  it,  at 
least,  brought  to  a  crisis  the  ruin  long  pending  over  many 
heads,  and  aggravated  the  distress  which  had  overtaken  the 
sugar  cultivators,  ever  since  the  freedmen  began  to  use  their 
freedom  to  demand  higher  wages,  and  to  withdraw  themselves 
wholly  or  in  part  from  field  labour.  It  is  unnecessary  to  the 
purpose  of  this  sketch  to  indulge  in  the  vanity  of  apportioning 
blame.  It  is  matter  of  history  that  the  ex-slaveholders,  con- 
verted against  their  will  into  employers,  failed  to  retain  the 
continuous  service  of  their  late  slaves  ;  that  disasters  came  far 
too  rapidly  for  them  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  circumstances 
of  a  free  labour  market ;  and  that  the  Negroes,  after  exacting  a 
higher  rate  of  wages  in  1842,  from  the  necessities  of  their 
employers,  than  they  could  really  afford  to  pay,  continued 
during  some  years  to  accumulate  wealth,  by  way  of  wages  out 
of  the  sugar  cultivation,  while  the  capital  which  supported  it 
was  fast  draining  away.  The  planters  now  paid  dearly  for  the 
persistence  they  had  shown  in  standing  out  against  the  con- 
ditions on  which  immigration  might  have  been  obtained  ;  in 
clinging  so  long  to  the  vain  hope  of  an  African  immigration, 
and  in  initiating  their  system  of  premiums  on  importation,  both 
with  Portuguese  and  Indians,  without  sufficient  preparation, 
and  on  too  vast  a  scale.  They  were  unfortunate,  too,  in 
choosing  the  old  battle-field  of  the  Civil  List  on  which  to 
fulminate  their  protest  against  the  policy  of  the  mother  country  ; 
and  still  more  so  in  the  traditional  device  they  resorted  to,  of 
stopping  the  supplies  by  way  of  coercing  the  Governor  and 
Colonial  Office.  The  consequent  loss  to  the  revenue  was 
enormous  ;  and  in  the  general  collapse  of  all  financial  and 
governmental  arrangements,  the  immigration  from  India  ceased 
entirely  for  three  years. 

In  return  for  an  expenditure  amounting,  as  we  shall  show 
hereafter,  to  ;^378,830  5^.,  there  was  now  in  the  colony  a  body 
of  7,000  African  immigrants,  by  this  time  mostly  independent, 
and  not  contribudng  greatly  to  the  supply  of  field  labour; 
another  of  8,600  Indians,  by  whom  at  this  time  the  greater 


APPENDIX.  353 

part  of  the  sugar  crop  was  made  ;  and  another  of  8,000  Portu- 
guese, now  fast  withdrawing  from  the  estates,  but  in  so  doing 
supplying,  as  retail  shopkeepers  and  hawkers,  an  element  much 
needed  by  the  community.  But  all  this  was  inadequate  to  till 
the  gap,  and  the  break-up  of  the  old  proprietary  ensued.  A 
great  portion  of  the  sugar  estates  came  into  the  market  during 
the  crisis,  and  though  purchasers  were  scarce  the  majority 
changed  owners. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  well  worthy  the  notice  of  economists, 
that  this  fall  of  the  old  proprietary,  and  the  consequent  trans- 
mutation of-  colonial  agriculture  into  a  business  entirely  com- 
mercial and  speculative,  by  the  loss  of  the  traditional  senti- 
ment which  attached  to  old  family  estates,  was  contemporaneous 
with  the  first  signs  of  recuperative  energy  in  the  sugar  industry. 
Mr.  Kelly  dates  in  1848  the  first  pause  in  its  downward  career, 
and  in  1851,  the  two  dates  just  covering  the  transition  period 
in  question,  the  first  symptoms  of  its  revival. 

One  cause  of  this  revival  was  the  timely  and  judicious  assist- 
ance at  this  time  voted  by  Parliament  to  the  West  India 
interest.  Of  the  sums  permitted  to  be  raised  under  Parliament 
on  guarantee,  _;^25o,ooo  was  the  share  apportioned  to  British 
Guiana,  and  it  was  decided  by  the  Colonial  Government  to 
expend  ^50,000  of  this  upon  a  railway,  and  the  rest  in  re- 
viving the  East  Indian  immigration. 

An  interesting  record  of  the  colonial  history  is  the  report 
published  at  the  close  of  1849  by  a  Commission  appointed  to 
examine  into  the  state  and  prospects  of  the  colony,  and  to 
decide  on  the  best  means  of  spending  the  Parliamentary  loan. 
The  Commissioners  took  perhaps  an  unduly  desponding  view 
of  troubles  in  which  they  had  individually  borne  great  part. 
They  certainly  ignored  the  comparatively  thriving  condition  of 
the  great  bulk  of  the  peasantry  ;  and  by  taking  count  of  all  the 
abandonments  of  estates  since  the  Dutch  epoch,  as  well  during 
slavery  times  as  afterwards,  by  erecting  squatting  into  a 
"  vicious  practice,"  freehold  tenure  into  a  "  crying  evil,"  and 
the  "  not  contributing  to  raise  the  staple  of  the  colony  "  into 
an  offence  against  patriotism,  if  not  against  morals,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  producing  a  picture  of  demoralization  and  ruin 
which  has  happily  l)een  belied  by  subsequent  events.  But  it 
must  be  recorded  on  the  side  of  the  planters,  that  the  best 

A  A 


35+  APPENDIX, 

interests  of  the  colony  were  now  bound  up  with  the  cultivation 
of  sugar ;  that  the  prospect  of  making  sugar  cultivators  out  of 
the  black  population,  whether  by  metairie  or  any  other  system, 
had  vanished,  and  that  from  this  time  forward  the  remedy  of 
immigration,  the  one  chance  that  remained,  was  seized  on  and 
pursued  with  rare  tenacity  and  vigour. 

Even  before  the  Commissioners  of  1850  had  presented  their 
Report,  two  ordinances  were  passed  by  which  the  loan  was 
appropriated  and  the  interest  secured  upon  certain  import 
duties.  The  principle  of  raising  import  duties  upon  articles 
of  common  consumption,  for  the  sake  of  defraying  among 
other  things  the  expenses  of  immigration,  had  been  first  con- 
ceded by  Lord  Stanley,  with  respect  to  the  Tax  Ordinance  of 
1842;  "Whatever  may  be  thought,"  he  says,  "of  the  ulti- 
mate prospects  of  the  planters,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
they  are  at  present  suffering  severely  from  the  high  price  and 
scarcity  of  labour,  and  that  every  possible  7-eIief  ought  to  be 
affo7-ded  to  their  adtivation  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  there  can 
be  as  little  doubt  that  the  great  body  of  the  consumer  are  well 
able  to  pay  the  taxes  on  imports."  It  may  be  assumed  that 
the  application  of  Customs  Revenue,  derived  from  articles  of 
common  use,  to  a  purpose  which  directly  benefits  only  one 
section  of  the  community,  and  that  the  luealthiest  afid  most 
powerful,  and  fnoreover  which,  in  fact,  absorbs  all  the  represetita- 
tive  element  in  the  Government,  is  only  to  be  justified  by  a  full 
demonstration  of  greater  benefit  derived  indirectly  by  the  other 
classes  and  sections  from  such  expenditure,  than  could  reason- 
ably be  expected  from  giving  any  more  popular  direction  to 
money. 

The  quinquennial  increase  in  the  number  of  Indian  immi- 
grants arriving  during  each  of  the  four  periods,  185 1 — 1855, 
1856 — 1860,  1861 — 1865,  and  1866 — 1870,  is  represented  by 
the  figures  9,000,  14,000,  18,000,  and  24,000.  The  days  are 
gone  by  when  the  system  was  overtaxed  by  an  immigration  of 
a  few  thousand  more  than  usual  to  the  extent  of  producing  a  ten 
per  cent,  mortality.  There  are  no  signs  as  yet  of  its  breaking 
down  under  the  increase,  and  there  are  now  resources  to  fall 
back  upon,  if  the  death-rate  is  found  to  be  increasing.  In  1853, 
besides  the  Indians,  647  Chinese  were  added,  and  in  the  seven 
years  1859 — 1866,  about  12,000  more.     This  Chinese  contin- 


APPENDIX.  355 

gent  has  been  found  most  useful,  and  great  regret  is  expressed 
at  the  termination  put  to  it  in  February,  1867,  by  the  Chinese 
Government  insisting  on  a  back  passage,  which  it  was  not 
found  remunerative  to  concede.  The  Chinese  have  proved,  in 
the  hands  of  those  employers  who  took  pains  to  study  their 
temperament,  valuable  as  field  labourers  and  unmatched  as 
artisans,  and  the  success  with  which  the  finer  processes  of 
sugar-making  by  the  vacuum-pan  method  have  been  conducted 
in  Guiana  is  in  some  measure  attributable  to  their  neat-handed 
industry.  Ten  thousand  Barbadians  and  Creoles  of  the  other 
islands,  12,000  Portuguese,  the  bulk  of  them  from  Madeira, 
with  a  contingent  from  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands,  and  2,500 
Africans,  have  been  imported  under  the  stimulus  of  the  premium 
system  ;  and  in  the  result,  the  rural  labouring  population  of 
the  colony,  which  in  1850  was  computed  by  Governor  Barkly's 
Commission  at  82,000,*  had  received  from  time  to  time 
augmentations,  which  in  all  considerably  exceed  that  number.f 

*  Note. — Thus  in  1849,  there  were — 

Not  residing  on  estates,  and  contributing  little  or 

nothing  to  their  cultivation 42>7SS 

Residing  on  Estates. 
Creoles 19.939 

Immigrants. 

Africans 5>B20 

Portuguese 5.206 

Indians 8,410 

82,130 

t  Note. — Introduced  since — 

Indians,  1851 — 1870 65,338 

Chinese,  1853— 1866 12,628 

Barbadians  (about) 10,000 

Portuguese  (about) 12,000 

Africans  (about) 2,500 

Subtract  returned —  102,466 

Indians ,....     7,000 

Barbadians 3,000 

10,000 

92,466 


356  APPENDIX. 

The  actual  numbers  of  the  rural  labouring  population  of 
the  colony  cannot  well  be  ascertained  until  the  result  of  this 
year's  census  is  known.  That  of  1861  would  seem  to  imply 
that  it  was  not  less  than  100,000. 


357 


APPENDIX  D. 

DR.  COOK,  who  came  out  in  December  as  medical  officer 
of  the  ship  Adamant,  told  us  of  a  half-witted  fellow 
among  the  passengers  by  that  vessel,  who  was  constantly  being 
asked  as  a  joke  by  his  comrades  whether  he  expected  to 
make  his  fortune,  to  which  he  always  replied,  "  No,  but  I  shall 
get  19  rupees  a  month."  He  rated  himself  at  the  minimum 
rate  upon  his  certificate,  but  we  fear  that  he  will  hardly  touch 
more  than  half  the  money. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  scale,  a  very  light-coloured,  intelli- 
gent-looking man  among  the  passengers  by  the  Medea  attracted 
our  notice,  who  made  the  following  statement  in  answer  to  our 
question  : — "  My  name  is  Mohamed  Sheriff.  I  was  a  gentle- 
man's servant  in  Bombay  (Colonel  Adams  of  the  13th  Native 
Infantry).  I  went  to  Lucknow,  where  I  was  buying  flowers  for 
the  table  in  the  Bazaar,  and  was  there  met  by  a  peon,  who  asked 
me  if  I  wanted  service.  I  said  yes.  He  asked  me  if  I  could 
boil  sugar.  I  said  yes.  He  then  told  me  there  was  plenty  of 
work  for  me  if  I  would  take  it — boiling  sugar  and  other  work  if 
I  liked  it.  That  I  should  have  to  go  to  Demerara,  and  should 
get  10  annas  to  2  rupees  a  day,  and  19  dollars  present.  So  I 
went  with  him  to  Calcutta,  and  was  approved  in  the  office, 
stayed  there  five  days,  and  then  embarked.  Some  of  the 
people  were  allowed  to  take  their  '  lotas  '  with  them,  but  all 
the  others  had  everything  taken  away  by  the  peons  when  they 
embarked,  and  was  served  with  Government  clothing.  I  got 
no  extract  from  the  register.  Nine  men  came  from  Lucknow 
with  me  ;  they  were  not  all  cultivators  ;  some  barbers,  coachmen, 
porters,  and  other  followings.  I  have  not  received  19  dollars, 
and  do  not  expect  it,  but  I  shall  get  3  dollars,  I   believe,  as  I 


358  APPENDIX. 

have  been  a  sirdar  on  board  the  ship.  I  went  with  the  14th 
Regiment  to  Abyssinia,  and  to  Magdala  with  the  regiments 
escorting  commissariat  stores.     I  am  going  to  Moor  Farm." 

It  is  ahnost  a  truism  to  say,  but  it  must  be  said,  emigrants 
should  not  be  allowed  to  embark  without  being  informed  by 
the  Emigration  Agent  as  accurately  as  possible  what  they  may 
expect  on  their  arrival  in  the  colony. 

The  copies  from  the  registers  kept  by  the  Protector  and  resi- 
dent magistrates,  which  are  given  to  the  immigrants,  and  by 
them  considered  as  a  contract,  may  not  indeed  be  held  binding 
by  the  Colonial  law,  but  are  none  the  less  direct  pledges 
of  the  faith  of  the  community.  This  is  another,  and,  we 
are  sorry  to  say,  a  still  continuing  instance  of  that  carelessness 
as  to  the  acts  of  their  agents  abroad  which  we  have  had  occa- 
sion to  notice  in  the  case  of  the  Chinese.  Were  it  not  that  we 
have  a  confident  expectation  that  the  calling  public  attention 
to  it  will  cause  the  immediate  stoppage  of  this  abuse,  we  could 
not  look  forward  with  any  satisfaction  to  the  continuance  of 
immigration  from  India. 

The  recruiters  receive  a  certam  advance  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  immigrants  to  Calcutta,  and  occasional  bribes.  It  is  their 
object  to  get  as  many  together  as  quickly  as  possible  ;  and  if  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  men  of  his  class  will  be  very  particular, 
there  is  the  more  need  of  care  on  the  part  of  their  employers. 

When  a  recruiter  has  collected  a  sufficient  number  of 
people,  he  conveys  them  to  Calcutta,  where  they  are  lodged  in 
the  emigration  deput  on  the  banks  of  the  Hooghly,  and  receive 
a  daily  allowance  of  food  ;  here  they  are  examined  by  the 
medical  inspector  and  surgeon  of  the  vessel  in  which  they  are 
about  to  embark.  This  examination  appears  to  be  conducted 
much  more  hastily,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  remarkable  evi- 
dence given  last  year  by  the  surgeon-superintendent  of  the 
immigrant  ships  Shand  TivA  Sophia  Joachin. 

The  provisions  taken  on  board  require  the  most  careful 
inspection,  and  some  have  frequently  to  be  rejected.  Dr. 
Crane  says,  with  reference  to  the  case  of  the  Sophia  Joachin : 
"  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  provisions  were  of  good  quality 
except  the  fish  and  tamarinds,  both  being  old  :  as  to  the  fish,  I 
was  informed  that  it  was  the  best  that  could  be  got  in  the 
market."     But  Adhar  Chunder  Doss,  of  the  Shand,  says  he 


APPENDIX.  359 

found  some  of  the  whole  was  bad.  The  lime-juice  was  also  bad, 
and  the  salt  fish  was  of  very  inferior  quality. 

As  to  the  fresh  water  taken  on  board,  there  is  evidence  of  a 
most  extraordinary  character  given  by  Mr.  Stephen  Whettern, 
commander  of  the  St.  Kilda. 

"  The  water  put  on  board  the  St.  Kilda  was  from  a  tank-boat 
ordered  by  the  Government.  We  took  on  board,  I  think, 
about  105  tons.  I  think  the  tank-boat  is,  to  the  best  of  my 
belief,  capable  of  containing  80  tons.  I  noticed  the  boat  at 
the  time  of  its  coming  alongside,  I  could  not  tell  from  the 
appearance  of  the  tank-boat  what  quantity  of  water  she  might 
have  had  on  board.  I  did  not  observe  any  difference  in  the 
appearance  of  the  tank-boat  in  her  draught  after  she  had  dis- 
charged the  quantity  of  water  we  took  on  board.  We  were 
lying  on  the  inside  mooring — we  were  moored  fore  and  aft — 
we  were  next  the  shore — we  were  so  close  that  the  ship  could 
not  have  swung.  I  am  quite  of  opinion  that  the  river  water 
was  pumped  from  the  river,  where  the  tank-boat  lay,  into  my 
ship.  While  the  water  was  being  pumped  into  the  ship  some 
one  in  authority  came  on  board  and  tasted  the  water  from 
alongside.  He  then  told  the  people  in  the  tank-boat  to  stop 
pumping,  as  the  water  was  a  little  brackish,  till  ebb-tide  set 
down.  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  place  where  the  ship  lay  was 
most  unfavourable  for  taking  water  on  board."  Dr.  Crane  also 
bears  witness :  "  The  water  put  on  board  was  of  a  muddy 
appearance,  and  deposited  much  sediment.  I  noticed  the 
appearance  when  it  was  being  pumped  on  board,  and  I  incjuired 
of  the  captain  of  the  tank-boat  where  the  water  was  obtained. 
He  said  from  up  the  river  towards  Barrackpore.  When  I 
observed  that  this  water  could  never  have  come  from  Barrack- 
pore,  he  laughed.     The  water  when  issued  was  very  dirty." 

There  is  evidently  something  wrong  in  the  Calcutta  arrange- 
ment ;  but,  in  the  absence  of  any  statement  from  the  parties 
who  are  concerned,  we  abstain  from  doing  more  than  recording 
this  evidence. 


36o 


APPENDIX  E. 

IT  would  be  well,  says  the  Pioneer  of  India,  if  magistrates 
and  the  police  throughout  the  country  would  direct  some 
special  attention  to  the  operations  of  a  set  of  scoundrels  who, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  are  just  now  particularly  active,  who 
are  formidably  organized,  and  the  cause  of  great  misery  in 
native  households,  and  of  much  (not  entirely  undeserved) 
odium  to  Government.  Some  late  judicial  proceedings  have 
established  the  fact  that  the  enrolment  of  Coolies  for  service  in 
the  West  Indies,  as  pursued  in  Allahabad,  differs  in  no  essential 
respect,  except  one,  from  the  old  African  slave  trade.  This  one 
exception  is  that  in  tlie  present  case  the  victims  are  British 
subjects  !  Here  in  India,  as  formerly  in  Africa,  the  slaves  are 
seized  by  force,  and  detained  against  their  will,  and  despite 
their  tears  and  entreaties.  Not  the  least  ugly  feature  in  the 
system  is  that  it  appears  that  young,  good-looking  women  are 
the  class  of  Coolies  preferred  in  "  Jamaica."  The  "  emigration 
agents  "  go  about  in  uniform  and  wearing  the  chapprass,  to  all 
appearance  the  -immediate  servants  of  Government.  It  is  there- 
fore no  wonder,  but  we  are  tempted  to  think  it  almost  a  pity, 
that  such  villainy  as  is  perpetrated  with  the  apparent  sanction 
of  Government  does  not  excite  a  rebellion.  A  small  emeute 
would  quicken  the  governmental  conscience  amazingly. 

From  a  subsequent  number  of  the  Pioneer  it  appears  that 
four  of  the  Allahabad  kidnappers,  alias  Jamaica  emigration 
agents,  have  received  a  measure  of  punishment,  having  been 
sentenced  to  twelve,  nine,  and  six  months'  imprisonment 
respectively  for  "  unlawful  confinement."  The  discovery  of  the 
slave  depot,  where  some  ten  or  twelve  women  were  kept  in 
durance,  came  about  in  this  wise  : — 


APPENDIX.  361 

A  fine-looking  young  woman  went  out  on  the  morning  of  the 
14th  to  earn  her  usual  daily  wages  by  grinding  corn  for  a 
Bunyah.  It  appeared,  however,  that  the  Bunyah  had  no  com 
for  grinding  that  morning,  and  she  was  consequently  returning 
home,  when  a  man  accosted  her,  and  oftered  her  a  job  in  corn- 
grinding  at  six  pice  for  the  day.  She  followed  him  to  the  serai 
at  Khurdabad  in  the  city,  where  another  man  made  his  appear- 
ance and  demanded  her  name.  She  began  to  suspect  some- 
thing was  wrong  and  tried  to  escape,  but  was  hustled  into  a 
room  in  the  serai,  where  a  number  of  other  women  and  a  few 
children  were  huddled  up  together  guarded  by  a  third  peon. 
Her  entreaties  for  release  were  answered  by  blows  and  cufts. 
She  was  told  not  to  be  a  fool — that  she  would  be  sent  to 
Jamaica,  where  she  would  get  twelve  rupees  a  month,  besides 
clothes,  &c.  She  replied  that  she  had  an  infant  at  home,  and 
did  not  want  to  go  away ;  she  was,  however,  detained,  strict 
watch  being  maintained  over  the  whole  party,  day  and  night. 
The  next  day  her  sister  succeeded  in  tracing  her  out,  and  began 
to  weep  and  beat  her  breast  before  the  door,  until  the  peon  on 
guard  pushed  her  also  inside,  saying  that  she  might  keep  her 
sister  company  to  Jamaica.  Either,  however,  the  arrest  of  the 
sister  had  been  too  public,  or  her  vociferous  howling  inside  was 
considered  dangerous,  for  the  peon  after  a  time  turned  her  out 
again.  She  offered  a  rupee  to  the  recruiting  agent  for  her 
sister's  release,  but  he  would  not  take  less  than  five  rupees.  In 
despair  she  went  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Evans,  where  her  nephew 
worked,  and  appealed  to  him  for  aid.  That  gentleman  accord- 
ingly, in  company  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Williamson,  went  to  the 
place  indicated,  and  inquired  of  one  of  the  agents  what  it  all 
meant.  The  scoundrel  declared  he  had  orders  from  Govern- 
ment to  collect  people  for  service  in  Jamaica,  but  pretended 
that  all  the  women  inside  were  there  with  their  own  consent. 
This,  however,  the  women  eagerly  denied,  and  rushed  pell- 
mell  into  the  street — one  in  such  a  hurry  and  terror  that  she 
left  her  infant  behind,  and  had  to  be  called  back  to  take  it 
away.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  humane  interference  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Evans,  it  is  probable  that  a  batch  of  some  twenty 
wretched  women  would  shortly  have  been  produced  before  a 
magistrate,  where,  like  Oliver  Twist  before  the  guardians,  they 
would  have  been  too  bewildered  and  terrified  to  express  their 


362  APPENDIX. 

horror  at  the  idea  of  being  expatriated — and  then,  why  then 
the  subaltern  kidnappers  would,  if  we  are  rightly  informed, 
have  received  from  their  European  employers  seven  rupees  for 
each  poor  woman  so  recruited,  as  an  encouragement  to  further 
such  good  work.  We  are  curious,  by-the-by,  to  know  why  the 
fee  for  each  woman  captured  is  seven  rupees,  while  that  for  the 
man  is  only  four — evidently  feminine  labour  is  especially  appre- 
ciated "  in  Jamaica"  or  elsewhere.  Though,  as  we  have  said, 
these  particular  women  owe  their  liberation  to  Messrs.  Evans 
and  Williamson,  the  arrest  of  the  scoundrelly  kidnappers  did 
not  take  place  till  some  six  or  seven  days  later,  and  was  due  to 
the  initiative  of  the  police  under  the  sub-inspector  of  the 
Colonelgunge  station. 


APPENDIX  F. 
MORTALITY  AND  ACCLIMATISATION. 

THE  plantations  in  British  Guiana  on  which  there  are  in- 
dentured immigrants,  being  for  the  most  part  on  the  sea- 
coast  or  banks  of  rivers,  never  far  distant  from  the  sea,  nor 
rising  much  above  its  level,  and  not  extending  above  two 
degrees  in  latitude,  prevents  there  being  any  marked  difterence 
in  either  the  climate  or  temperature  of  the  country,  and  we  may 
conclude  that,  but  for  local  circumstances,  the  plantations  may 
all  be  considered  equally  healthy. 

The  hospital  returns  for  the  last  four  years  show  an  average 
of  1*63  per  cent,  of  deaths  to  cases  treated. 

Berbice  and  the  River  Districts  are  always  below  the  average  ; 
the  Essequibo  Islands  always  above ;  and  the  West  Coast, 
Aroabisce  Coast,  and  East  Coast,  are  three  times  out  of  the 
four  above  the  average  also.  But  as  these  figures,  taken  from 
Dr.  Shier's  reports,  are  not  the  percentages  of  deaths  on  popu- 
lation, but  on  the  cases  treated  in  hospital,  allowances  must  be 
made,  not  only  for  the  difference  of  climate  and  situation,  but 
also  for  the  difference  of  hospital  treatment. 

If  these  returns  could  be  relied  on,  we  might,  in  the  first 
place,  draw  from  them  the  satisfactory  conclusion  that  the  last 
five  years,  at  all  events,  have  witnessed  a  great  diminution  in 
the  death-rate.  In  qualification  of  this  we  must  observe  that 
the  death-rate  lor  all  the  years  subsequent  to  1865  has  been 
calculated  for  free  immigrants  as  well  as  indentured. 

This  of  itself  somewhat  reduces  the  rate,  which  is  highest 
among  new  comers,  who  are  all  indentured  ;  nevertheless,  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  a  great  diminution  has  taken  place, 


364  APPENDIX. 

and  that  it  may  be  ascribed  to  the  better  hospitals,  better 
dwellings,  and  greater  care  of  late  bestowed  upon  the  immi- 
grants. 

The  average,  if  one  may  judge  from  this  table,  would 
appear  to  be,  as  nearly  as  possible,  4  per  cent,  on  the  popu- 
lation. 

This  rate  of  mortality  is  undoubtedly  large  ;  it  is  a  trifle  less 
on  the  whole,  but  larger  in  three  years  out  of  the  five,  than  that 
shown  by  Dr.  Dalton  ("  British  Guiana,"  vol.  ii.  p.  129)  as  the 
ratio  for  black  troops  here  for  twenty  years  (406),  and  larger 
than  is  shown  in  Mr.  Hadfield's  tables,  quoted  by  Dr.  Dalton, 
as  the  mortality  of  Georgetown  for  nine  years  ending  with 
1846,  3*54  per  cent.  But  the  mortality  returns  of  the  Immigra- 
tion Office  are  not,  at  least  till  within  the  last  three  years,  to  be 
depended  upon  as  calculations,  involving  as  they  do  a  large 
element  of  mere  estimation. 

In  the  table  of  returns  furnished  as  showing  the  number  of 
deaths  from  the  commencement  of  immigration  up  to  the  31st 
of  December,  1866,  since  the  total  number  of  deaths  arrived  at 
is  obviously  too  small,  an  arbitrary  addition  of  25  per  cent,  is 
made,  and  a  number  is  further  guessed  at,  to  account  for  the 
immigrants  dying  in  villages,  towns,  woodcutting  places,  &c., 
equal  to  10  per  cent,  upon  the  whole. 

The  following  return  for  the  last  three  years  is  obtained 
by  taking  the  number  on  the  estates  on  the  last  day  of  the  pre- 
ceding year,  adding  the  average  -oi  new  arrivals  at  different 
times  during  the  year,  so  as  to  allow  for  that  part  of  the  year 
during  which  they  were  in  the  colony,  and  one-third  of  the 
births  which  have  occurred  during  the  year,  then  deducting 
from  the  total  of  these  numbers  the  average  of  those  who  have 
returned  to  India  during  the  year  according  to  the  date  they 
left  British  Guiana,  the  remainder  shows,  as  nearly  as  can  be 
ascertained,  an  average  number  on  estates  at  any  time  during 
the  year. 

The  number  of  deaths  given  in  the  return  is  then  reduced  by 
one-half  of  those  who  have  died  in  the  public  institutions,  to 
allow  for  those  who  were  sent  to  the  hospital  from  on  board 
ships,  and  for  those  not  under  indenture,  taken  up  by  the 
police  and  sent  to  the  public  hospital.  The  table  stands 
thus  : — 


APPENDIX. 

Indians. 

Population.           Deaths. 

Death-rate 

1867 
1 868 
1869 

31,274                 1,333 

33-579                  9«5 
36,860                1,106 

Chinese. 

4-3 
2-9 
30 

Population.           Deaths. 

Death-rate 

1867 
1868 
1869 

7.305                   367 
6,900                   226 

6,553                  201 

5-0 

330 

3-00 

making  the  percentage  for  these  three  years 

to  be  : — 

1867 
1868 

4-41 
2-99 

1869 

3-00 

365 


This  appears  to  be  a  somewhat  nearer  approximation  to  the 
truth,  calculated  from  the  same  date  as  the  Immigration  Office 
returns.  We  must  notice,  however,  in  these  data,  one  point 
which  has  tended  constantly  to  diminish  the  rate.  Among  the 
population  are  included  a  number  of  deserters,  some  of  whom 
have  been  absent  for  several  years.  The  numbers  of  deaths 
among  these  cannot  be  ascertained,  and  probably  most  of  them 
are  omitted  in  the  return.  The  census  of  this  year  will,  we 
hope,  afford  means  of  determining  more  accurately  the  mor- 
tality among  the  immigrants  since  that  of  1861  was  taken. 

If  the  rate  has  really  fallen  three  or  four  per  cent,  it  is 
a  result,  not  certainly  with  which  to  rest  content,  but  affording 
much  ground  for  satisfaction,  when  compared  with  the  early 
history  of  immigration.  The  mortality  attending  the  East 
Indian  immigrants  in  1845-185 1  may  be  prm'ed  to  have  been  not 
less  than  tm  per  cent,  anmially.  The  numbers  introduced  up  to 
1850,  beginning  with  the  400  who  came  in  1&38  (of  whom, 
however,  238  return  to  India  in  1843) 

Were  in  ....        1845  816 

„  .            .            .            ,1846  4,036 

»  ....        1847  3,467 

,,  ....        1848  3,541 

Total  .  .  .  11,860 

After  this,  there  was  no  further  importation  till  1851.  These 
people  were  entitled  to  back  passage  after  five  years'  service  ; 
and  in  1850  one  ship  had  returned  carrying  247  people  : — 


366  APPENDIX, 


Ti,86o 

247 


11,613 
Adding  for  the  survivors  in  1845  of  those 

who  came  in  1 838,  many  of  whom  had  died :        50 


The  Census  of  1851  gave,  as  the  number  of 
East  Indians  in  the  Colony : 


11,663 


7,682 


leaving  to  be  accounted  for,  as  the  excess  of  deaths  over 
births  in  this  period  of  six  years,  3,981,  or  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  whole.  An  estimate  of  the  rate  of  mortality 
necessary  to  produce  this  result  is  not  difficult  to  form.  It  is 
certain  that  the  addition  to  the  population  by  births,  in  the 
country,  of  infants,  still  surviving  in  185 1,  was  insignificant  in 
the  extreme. 

The  women  were  insufficient  in  number,  and  in  character 
ill-fitted  to  rear  families ;  and  among  the  most  thriving  part  of 
the  population,  those,  namely,  who  afterwards  returned  to 
India,  the  number  of  infants  carried  back  (that  is,  of  children 
under  two  years  of  age)  remained  for  many  years  exceedingly 
small.  Omitting,  therefore,  all  considerations  of  such  addi- 
tions to  the  population,  a  calculated  mortality  of  10  per  cent, 
per  annum,  worked  out  by  introducing  year  by  year  the  new 
comers,  and  subtracting  10  per  cent,  of  the  whole  for  deaths, 
will  be  found  to  leave  in  185 1,  7,698  survivors,  or  a  trifle  more 
than  the  number  actually  found  in  the  colony  when  the  Census 
of  March  31st,  1851,  was  taken. 

Such  a  state  of  things,  we  may  hope,  has  passed  away, 
never  to  return.  Still,  from  time  to  time  an  estate  produces  so 
large  a  figure  in  the  mortality  tables  of  several  years  in  suc- 
cession, as  to  show  that  the  very  great  precautions  now  taken 
are  by  no  means  too  great. 

It  must  often  become  a  matter  for  serious  consideration 
whether  allotments  to  such  an  estate  ought  to  continue,  and 
we  feel  bound  to  urge  that  it  is  not  the  culpability,  and  still 
less  the  interest,  of  the  employer  that  ought  to  be  considered 
by  the  administration. 


APPENDIX,  367 

If  the  indentured  immigrants  had  been  successfully  brought 
within  reach  of  the  hospital  system,  the  same  cannot  be  said 
for  the  unindentured.  The  estate's  hospital  is  an  absolutely 
essential  feature  in  the  immigration  system,  but  it  is  more 
especially  for  the  indentured  immigrants  in  their  first  tenn  of 
service  that  it  is  needed. 

But  here  a  very  important  subject  forces  itself  upon 
our  attention.  The  immigrants  are  all  foreigners.  Is  the 
climate  genial  to  them,  or  do  they  require  seasoning  ?  Is  the 
above  mortality  equally  distributed  over  all  immigrants ;  or  do 
those  newly  arrived  in  the  country  furnish  more  than  their 
proper  quota?  On  this  last  subject  we  have  referred  to 
Dr.  Shier's  reports  for  information.  The  figures  can  be  as- 
certained no  further  back  than  the  first  half  of  1863,  when 
the  proportion  of  those  who  died,  not  having  completed  their 
first  year,  was  found  to  amount  to  55*56  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  number  of  deaths  of  indentured  immigrants.  In  the 
last  half  year  of  the  next  year,  the  percentage  had  fallen  to 
3467.  From  the  ist  July,  1865,  to  30th  June,  1866,  it  rose 
again  to  37*65  ;  for  the  year  1867  the  rate  was  32'97.  In  the 
last  half  of  that  year,  yellow  fever  prevailed ;  and  out  of  the 
eighteen  cases  which  terminated  fatally,  fourteen  were  of  per- 
sons who  had  not  been  six  months  in  the  country. 

In  1868  the  percentage  was  18*95  5  ^^"^  I^^-  Shier, 
writing  on  the  loth  May,  1869,  remarks,  that  "at  present  we 
are  on  the  verge  of  the  most  sickly  season,  and  fully  one-third 
of  the  immigrants  are  not  yet  arrived."  As  was  to  be  expected, 
the  percentage  rose  in  the  next  year  to  20*91  ;  but  of  the  203 
who  died  to  make  this  average,  thirty-nine  were  children  under 
ten  years  of  age.  In  the  first  half  of  1870,  158,  or  38*20  per 
cent.,  had  not  completed  their  first  year  of  residence,  and  of 
them  forty-three  were  children. 

The  subject  has,  of  course,  attracted  Dr.  Shier's  obser- 
vation and  engaged  his  attention,  and,  in  his  20th  Report, 
he  suggests  that  the  immigrants  must  have  been  in  enfeebled 
condition  on  arrival ;  and  proposes  measures  for  modifying 
the  conditions  favourable  to  the  prevalence  of  those  diseases 
which  proved  fatal  to  them.  In  his  21st  Report,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  experience  he  has  gained,  that  the  acclimatisa- 
tion  of   immigrants   is   not   effected   with   equal  ease  in  all 


368  AFPENDIX. 

districts  and  at  all  seasons,  he  proposes  so  to  arrange  the 
allotments  that,  towards  the  end  of  the  season,  allotments 
should  fall  only  to  those  estates  possessed  of  the  greatest 
facilities  for  acclimatisation.  The  scheme  has  been  matured 
and  published  since  we  had  an  opportunity  of  examining  Dr. 
Shier. 

We  conclude  that  it  is  intended  so  to  arrange  the  allotments, 
that  schedule  A,  including  the  unhealthy  estates  of  Haarlem, 
Peter's  Hall,  Frovidence  Farm,  Diamond,  Friends,  and  Ma 
Retraiie,  to  which  he  took  exception  in  his  20th  Report, 
should  be  supphed  earliest,  or  at  ail  events  not  latest,  in  the 
season. 

If  possible,  no  relaxation  of  the  rule  should  be  per- 
mitted by  which  the  agent  in  India  is  instructed  to  take  care, 
as  suggested  by  Dr.  Shier,  that  immigrants  should  so  leave 
India  that  they  may  come  into  the  colony  not  later  than  April. 
It  is  true  that  Mr.  Russell,  of  Leonora,  gives  an  instance  of  a 
batch  of  Coolies,  the  best  he  ever  had,  who  arrived  in  the 
middle  of  May,  went  to  work  the  second  day  after  their 
arrival,  and  at  the  end  of  five  years  all,  except  a  girl  who  had 
died  of  consumption,  answering  to  their  name.  This,  how- 
ever, is  to  be  received  as  an  exception,  and  of  an  exceptionally 
fine  set  of  Coolies,  not  as  controverting  the  assertion  that 
those  Coolies  have  a  better  chance  who  arrive  early  in  the 
season  than  those  who  arrive  just  before  the  long  wet  season 
sets  in,  or,  that  it  is  better  for  them  not  to  be  put  to  so  severe 
labour  directly  on  their  arrival. 

The  early  arrival  of  new  immigrants  is  the  first  measure 
Dr.  Shier  suggests  in  his  20th  Report,  4th  April,  1870,  as 
tending  to  modify  the  risks  to  which  newly  arrived  immigrants 
are  subject. 

The  second  is,  that  they  should  be  supplied  with  suitable 
food  until  they  can  be  trusted  to  supply  themselves. 

The  principle  has  already  been  admitted  in  section  10  of 
Ordinance  9  of  1868,  that,  with  the  approval  of  the  Governor, 
newly  arrived  immigrants  may  be  dieted  by  their  employer  for 
four  months  :  this  subject  having,  of  course,  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  Immigration  Department  and  the  Government 
before  that  ordinance  was  passed. 

On    the    2nd    January,    1867,    Mr.    Crosby,    the    Immi- 


APPENDIX.  369 

gration  Agent-General,  sent  a  circular  to  the  managers  of 
estates  suggesting  that  all  immigrants,  until  acclimatised, 
should  be  only  moderately  and  judiciously  worked,  and  for 
six  months  or  upwards  regularly  fed  by  the  estate,  in  a  manner 
similar  to  that  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  during  the 
voyage,  the  value  of  such  food  being  a  set-off  against  the 
wages  they  earned.  The  adoption  of  this  suggestion,  which 
certainly  was  not  in  accordance  with  section  103  of  Ordinance 
4  of  1864,  by  Mr.  Field,  of  pin.  Great  Diamotid,  produced  a 
complaint  from  his  immigrants,  and  a  condemnation  of  the 
plan  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor  on  the  ground  of  illegality. 
It  worked  well,  however,  and  was  shortly  afterwards  legalized. 
By  the  Ordinance  9  of  1868,  section  10,  it  was  pro- 
vided that  an  employer  might  supply  indentured  immigrants 
with  rations  during  the  first  four  months  of  their  service,  accord- 
ing to  a  scale  of  dietary  to  be  approved  by  the  Governor,  and 
that  in  such  a  case  he  might  deduct  the  cost  of  the  rations,  at 
a  fixed  price,  from  the  wages  the  immigrants  earned.  Mr. 
Crosby  was,  at  this  time,  absent  from  the  office,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  the  drawing  up  of  a  scale  by  the  acting  agent- 
general,  and  some  correspondence  with  planters,  nothing  appears 
to  have  been  done  in  pursuance  of  this  section,  until  on  the 
i2th  Dec,  1870,  the  following  notice  was  issued  : — 


"Government  Notice. 

"  The  following  is  the  scale  of  dietary  and  the  prices  fixed 
for  the  same,  which  have  been  approved  by  his  Excellency 
the  Governor,  under  section  10  of  Ordinance  No.  9  of  1868, 
as  allowable  to  employers  of  immigrants  for  rations  which  may 
be  supplied  such  immigrants  during  the  first  four  months  of 
their  service  under  indenture. 

"  Guiana  Public  Buildings, 

"Georgetown,  Dcmerara,  12th  December,  1870. 

"  By  Command, 

"J.  M.  GRANT, 

"  Government  Secretary.** 

B  B 


370 


APPENDIX- 


Proposed  Scale  of  Diet  under  Ordinance  9  of  1868,  S.  10. 


At  6.30  A.M. 


Breakfast 
at  II  A.M. 


For 
Biscuit  .     .     . 

25  Adults. 
4    oz. each 

Sugar   .    •    , 

I     i»     »» 

■     • 

Rice     .    •    • 
»Dholl    .     .     . 

Ghee  or  Mus- ' 
tard  Oil      . 
*SaltFish  .     . 

12    oz.  each 

4       M       » 

2   "     »» 
2     >»     i> 

•        • 

Onions .     .     . 
Chillies      .     . 
Turmeric    .     . 

2    >>     »> 

(say) 

Coriander  Seed 

Salt     .     .     .    . 

•    •    •    • 

Estimated  Extreme 
;.  Cost. 

\     .    50  cts. 
\    '     14  .. 


64  cts. 
56  cts. 

30  .1 


25 

25 

14 


2    f    ^""7 
(  Powder, 


*  Note. — If  no  Dholl,  then  4  oz.  of  Salt  Fish. 
Dinner  at  As  above,  only  substituting — 

4  or  5  P.M.         24  oz.  cooked  Plantains  (without  husks). 
2    ,,    Pork  or  i  oz.  Butter. 

4  ,,    Salt  Fish. 

I    ,,   Onions     .$•••>  .  . 

5  or  6  Biscuits. 


$  I  68 


$  I  68 


25  at  16  cts.  each §40 

*  Note. — A  little  Tobacco  should  be  issued  at  regular  periods  to  those 
who  use  it. 

Provisions  to  be  invariably  issued  cooked. 

We  think  that  this  scale  of  diet  might  be  somewhat 
simplified  with  advantage  both  to  the  labourer  and  employer, 
say: 

i^  lb.  of  Rice. 

4    ozs.  Dholl. 

1  ,,    Ghee. 

(  Chillies. 
^      ,,      I  Turmeric. 

(  Coriander  Seed. 

2  „    Sugar. 

Salt,  as  much  as  required  for  seasoning  the  rice  or  d'noll. 
This  would  be  quite  sufficient  to  keep  a  man  in  health ;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  would  enable  him  to  receive  more  of  his 
wages  in  money,  as  the  rations  would  cost  less.     As  the  pro- 


APPENDIX.  i-ji 

vision  in  the  Act  at  present  leaves  it  to  the  option  of  tlie 
employer  whether  he  will  feed  his  immigrants  or  not,  and  this 
change  would  no  doubt  make  it  acceptable  to  him,  he  would 
be  more  likely  to  assist  in  carrying  out  the  system. 

The  duration  as  to  the  length  of  time  for  which  the 
dieting  should  be  continued  is  a  point  on  which  there  are 
great  differences  of  opinion.  Those  managers  who  hove  not 
tried  it  are  anxious  to  make  it  short,  fearing  the  trouble  it 
might  cause  them  ;  while  those  who  have,  are  willing  to  see  it 
extended,  having  found  it  beneficial  by  experience.  We  under- 
stand that  the  home  authorities  are  no  longer  inclined  to  press 
their  objections  to  the  plan  founded  on  the  abuses  peculiar  to 
a  truck  system ;  and,  certainly,  in  this  instance,  there  are  cir- 
cumstances to  modify  the  general  rule.  After  giving  consider- 
able thought  to  the  subject,  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  four  months  term  should  be  increased ;  and  the  scheme 
we  would  propose  is  as  follows  : — 

All  immigrants,  at  whatever  period  of  the  year  arriving, 
should  be  dieted  up  to  the  end  of  their  first  sickly  season,  say 
the  ist  of  October.  Since  none  arrive  later  than  June,  this 
would  give  a  minimum  of  nearly  four  months  ;  during  that 
period,  they  should  be  mustered  at  the  hospital  periodically,  at 
least  once  in  every  month,  and  inspected  by  the  medical  prac- 
titioner to  the  estate.  On  or  about  the  ist  of  October,  at  the 
periodical  inspection,  the  employer  should  produce  his  pay 
list,  and  the  doctor  should  strike  off  from  his  muster  roll  every 
immigrant  who  has,  every  week  during  the  last  six  weeks, 
earned  enough  to  pay  for  his  food.  The  same  process 
should  be  repeated  at  subsequent  inspections  :  until  at  the 
end  of  the  second  sickly  season,  when  all  who  are  then  left 
(with  the  exception  of  those  who,  as  at  present,  unfortunately 
become  chronic  pensioners  on  the  estate),  should  be  remitted 
to  the  normal  condition  of  labourers  earning  their  living  and 
receiving  all  their  wages  in  money. 


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